Evanne Ní Chuilinn (Fine Gael)

It has come to my attention that an issue I raised several weeks ago, on the provision of public health nurses in Dublin 12, has continued to escalate. I have been contacted by a number of parents of children aged between two months and four years who are not being seen for developmental checks. In one instance, the mother of a four-year-old boy was in touch to say her son's final sign-off before starting school will not be provided. She received a letter from the public health nursing team in the HSE in the past three weeks informing her that her four-year-old son would not be receiving his routine final developmental check due to what the letter describes as staffing shortages, Covid-19 and HSE or Government restrictions and guidelines. The letter also stated that unless she was to raise a concern herself, the child’s health record would be closed on the active register within two to three weeks. As you can imagine, the language used regarding a time limit has caused a certain amount of alarm among parents. More to the point, parents do not feel equipped to make the assessments, or to look at their children and make clinical assessments. Developmental checks are not a formality; they are a key opportunity for trained professionals to assess the critical aspects of babies', toddlers' and children's development, whether it is in respect of speech and language, vision or hearing, or fine-motor, gross-motor or even just social development. The assessments exist to identify potential issues before children start school, when early intervention can make the greatest difference. The oversight needs to be addressed urgently. I have raised it before and would like to invite the Minister in to help explain why children in Crumlin and Drimnagh, and maybe elsewhere although I am not sure, are not being seen by their local public health team, and how the Covid-19 pandemic is still affecting this area of Dublin but perhaps not other areas of Dublin and of the country.