Fiona O'Loughlin (Fianna Fail)
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I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, to this House. It is the first time I have had the chance to publicly congratulate her on her appointment as Minister of State. I have no doubt that with her work ethic and compassion, she will make a big difference to the lives of people with a disability. I also want to say well done to the Minister of State on securing a significant disability budget, the highest in the history of the State, in budget 2021. Now we have to make sure that makes a difference on the ground to the people who matter because it is about implementation and improving lives.

I will talk about the issue of children with disabilities, particularly in Kildare. I was contacted at the beginning of this month by a mother, Samantha Kenny, about her daughter, Ava, who I had dealt with before. She was distraught to receive a letter saying that three therapists and one part-time therapist would be taken away from the network disability team, NDT, in Kildare in order to deal with early assessments.We all know how important early assessments are but it should not be a competition between assessments and early intervention. Since I spoke about this issue I have been contacted by a number of parents in Kildare. It is not a lie to say they are absolutely distraught. It has been months since March, when their therapists were taken away from them to do contact tracing. In that time, these children did not have the opportunity to be in school so they further regressed. Now, when things had been getting back to some level of normality, the fact these vital services will be removed again is simply shocking.

I understand that therapists, by which I mean physiotherapists, speech therapists and occupational therapists, are being taken away to work on contact tracing. We all know how important contact tracing is during this crisis but to create a backlog of dire situations and consequences for children is absolutely not the way to do it. All of the research on children with disabilities shows the importance of community-based early intervention and the importance of interdisciplinary team work. The fact that Ava and her peers are not getting this at present in Kildare is absolutely wrong. We cannot allow this situation to go on.

We are not speaking about luxuries. We are speaking about a passport to life for these children. We are talking about a situation where children are being denied access to speech therapy to help their communication. The right to be able to communicate is a basic human right. It is something that all of us in the Chamber take for granted. Not having a system in place whereby we ensure children have the right to communicate is absolutely wrong.

We all know that early intervention as well as assessment is key to ensuring children with disabilities can live the best lives they can and can take their places within the community and society. It is absolutely wrong that after assessments are carried out, there is no programme of supports and services to enable these children and support their families. What is happening is completely and utterly unacceptable and I hope the Minister of State can put this right.

Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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I thank Senator O'Loughlin for giving me the opportunity to address this specific matter. I want to go back to the question she submitted, which was on redeployment to address assessments of need. We are speaking about speech and language therapists, occupational therapists and physical therapists. This is the question the Senator laid before me to address today. My answer does not comprehensively address this but I would like to address it and bring the Senator up to speed on it.

The reason €7.8 million was provided from Sláintecare funding was to address the backlog in assessments of needs for in excess of 6,500 children. This is why, in conjunction with the Department and the HSE, I put in place a plan to address it and get everybody on the one page where the assessments of needs are done and, at the same time, put in place a plan for the delivery of services through our clinicians at the other end.

The deployment piece is what the Senator has raised this morning. It is something that is becoming a more alarming concern to me because it is not just in the Senator's community healthcare organisation area but throughout the country. I spoke to Paul Reid and Anne O'Connor on 5 October and I raised it as a huge concern for me. Only this week, I spoke to Fergal Goodman in the Department and other principal officers to portray my fears and anxieties about the families and the children such as Ava throughout the country.I can say that while I have an investment, parents are not feeling that they are getting the calls, we cannot support them and are not in a position to deliver. Not only is the HSE sending the kinds of letters to which the Senator referred but I am also aware that other providers under sections 38 and 39 that have been commissioned to do the work are also now part of the redeployment. It is important for us to understand the need for contact tracing, the value of which was demonstrated by the report that one person who did not restrict his movement led to the infection of 56 others.

The are two things here, the first of which is the early intervention piece which applies to children from nought to six years of age. If we do not get it then, we lose that piece because the child goes onto another list when he or she turns six and there is another backlog there. This is a priority within my Department, hence the €7.8 million allocated in August. I can only say that the HSE and the Department of Health are working closely with me. Contact tracers have been recruited through the HSE. That is going on and they are being trained in as we speak. The whole purpose is to let the staff, the trained clinicians, come back. It is not happening quickly enough if parents are receiving those letters. It is causing extra anxiety.

I received good news this week to the effect that, as part of essential services, speech and language therapy, occupational therapy and physiotherapy will continue during level 5 restrictions. They will not cease. Those services did not continue during the previous lockdown but they will this time. We should not find ourselves with mounting lists. We should find ourselves addressing those issues through level 5. I welcome that and thank the HSE and the Department for getting us to that position.

The National Public Health Emergency Team, NPHET, will meet later today and I look forward to the outcomes of that as they apply to clinicians, speech and language therapists, occupational therapists and physiotherapists. I hope that network disability teams will be repopulated to support young people with assessments of need. The Senator can tell Ava's mum that is what has happened through my Department this week. I say that to any other mothers in similar situations who are listening. I am on top of it and across it and will stay that way until I know that everybody who was redeployed returns to fulfil the functions of their jobs.

Fiona O'Loughlin (Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister of State for that response. It is certainly good news that therapy can continue through level 5. I had asked the Minister of State to Kildare to meet representatives of KARE and the Muiríosa Foundation. She had committed to doing that during October but the restrictions mean that cannot happen.

When we talk about redeployment, there are two different kinds. We are talking about therapists who are going to, or have gone to, contact tracing and those who went from intervention therapy to assessment therapy. We need to battle this. I want to know when children like Ava will receive the therapies that they absolutely need.

I am still awaiting figures from the HSE to show where we are on assessments and early intervention. I asked a similar question last year and 78% of children in Ireland were waiting more than three months for an initial assessment. That was an absolute disgrace and bad indictment of the system.

I thank the Minister of State for her support but I wish to know when these children, who absolutely need these therapies, will be given the opportunity to recommence them.

Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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I thank Senator O'Loughlin. As I said, the €7.8 million was to address the backlog. I am on top of the redeployment piece. There was a successful budget last week, out of which money was circled for the recruitment of additional staff, including another 100 therapist posts. Some 100 therapists were secured under the most recent programme for Government. It is sad to think that the last of those staff members to come on board, in early March, went straight into contact tracing. They did not get to hit the ground running. I want them brought back into the profession for which they were hired. I also want the new posts that we were going to advertise to be filled in order that when the proper assessments of needs are completed for the backlog of cases, we will have therapists in place to carry out the interventions. Three items of work are being done, that is, recruitment, early intervention and assessment of need. I have made it my priority within the Department that those children and parents will be looked after every step of the way and not be left waiting.

Joe O'Reilly (Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister of State and take the opportunity to welcome and congratulate her on her appointment.