Tom Clonan (Independent)
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I thank the Minister of State for attending. It is International Women's Day on Saturday. Later today, we will have a Private Members' debate on women's health on this auspicious week. I raise the issue of a young Irish girl, Eve Lynn Woods, born in 2018. She is seven years old. Like thousands of other children in Ireland, she has received no meaningful physiotherapy or occupational or speech therapy. She has received no assessment of needs and she is seven years old. She has a diagnosis that her parents - her mum, Kelly-Marie, is here - had to pay for themselves when she was two years old out of sheer desperation.

This is the story of thousands of Irish families across the Republic, my own included. I have a 23-year-old who has never received any meaningful physio, speech or occupational therapy or hydrotherapy intervention. This is not just a national scandal; it is an international scandal. We are a wealthy country. I note the Minister is not here herself, possibly because of diary commitments. I hope this will not be the beginning of a repeat of the trend in the previous Seanad when Ministers routinely failed to appear in this House. They are not in charge of anything. They are public servants and are here to be accountable. Eve Lynn's mum is here and I am here. I appreciate the Minister of State taking the time to be here. I am glad it is him because I know he will take on board everything I will say.

If one looks at the pattern of failure on the part of the HSE in respect of Eve Lynn, it is a recurring pattern that impacts on families across the State. Here we have a young girl who has never had a meaningful intervention within the therapeutic window. Why is that? Why do we fail so many disabled citizens and citizens in Ireland with additional needs? It is precisely for that reason - they are disabled. As a jurisdiction, we differ from all other jurisdictions in the European Union, in that there are no legal rights to treatment, supports, therapies or interventions in this Republic. They exist everywhere else in the European Union. That is because, in Ireland - I am ashamed to say it - we assign less human value to the boys and girls who have additional needs than the so-called able-bodied community.We are an ableist State. If people are not familiar with that word, it is as infamous as racist, sexist and homophobic. We are ableist. Let us imagine parents watching their child deteriorate and being powerless to intervene. Can the Minister of State imagine what that is like and the pain of it? Not only do the parents have a diagnosis of additional needs but, in Ireland, they go through the looking glass into this parallel universe of unmet need, anxiety and suffering. Kelly-Marie should be at work today but she is not; she is here. She has had to move to work part time because of the constant, reiterative failure of the HSE in her daughter's cause. Reading through the background, she gets one appointment with a physiotherapist from a children's disability network team, CDNT, who carries out a consultation over a camera phone to look at her foot, which has developed a turn. This is shocking. We should be ashamed of ourselves. I ask the Minister of State to implore and require the CDNT in the Dublin 5 area to deal meaningfully with this and intervene now, even at this late stage, to assist Eve Lynne Woods. We can do much better than this.

Jerry Buttimer (Cork South-Central, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Senator for raising the matter. I welcome Kelly-Marie to the Public Gallery. In many ways, the response that I have is inadequate for the request that the Senator has made for Eve Lynne. I am cognisant that the words on this paper do not reflect the reality and the lived experience of so many parents, as he has rightly said. I have a strong connection with the disability sector in Cork and have been vocal on the matter, with the Senator, in this House. I am taking this Commencement matter on behalf of the Minister of State, Deputy Naughton, who is unfortunately not here today. She sends her apologies.

The Minister and Department have set up a number of processes, including a number of briefing sessions for members of the parliamentary community. The Minister has committed to the continuing development and enhancement of the 93 CDNTs as they seek to ensure, as the Senator said, equitable access to services for all children with complex needs and putting a value on all of them together. As Senators will be well aware, the progressing disability services, PDS, roadmap has a focus on the ongoing development of CDNT services to meet growing and current demands. I acknowledge that the difficulties faced in this particular case and by many thousands of children, as the Senator said, who have had no meaningful occupational therapy, physiotherapy or speech therapy, are unacceptable. The Minister of State, Deputy Naughton, and Government are committed to addressing the ongoing challenges in recruitment being experienced by the HSE and the various lead agencies across a variety of disciplines and grades, in order to ensure that each CDNT is fully staffed.

St. Michael's House is the lead agency for Kilbarrack children's disability network team. I am told it accepted the referral of Eve Lynne in July last year and she is on the waiting list for the team. However, the CDNT has agreed to backdate her referral to the date of her initial clinical appointment in June 2022. I do not have good news for the Senator. Regrettably, at this time, I am informed that Kilbarrack CDNT advised that it is unable to give an exact date for an appointment. I give the Senator a commitment this morning, on the floor of the Chamber, that I will advocate on his behalf and of the family and Eve Lynne. I will talk to the Department personally when I leave today. I understand that the response I gave is unsatisfactory. I understand the frustration and annoyance. I know the Senator knows that I genuinely understand.

Tom Clonan (Independent)
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I know that.

Jerry Buttimer (Cork South-Central, Fine Gael)
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I feel inadequate reading a reply to the Senator and Kelly-Marie this morning. I am told that St. Michael's House has assured the HSE that it is striving to improve waiting times experienced by some children. I know that the Minister of State, Deputy Naughton, at the behest of the Tánaiste, is committed to making changes and improving the situation.

As the Senator knows, a number of initiatives are being taken to address the list. They include webinars, which he referred to. They are perhaps not adequate in some cases. They include workshops, advice clinics and group interventions. St. Michael's House has also allowed access to a new support plan for families, with accredited guides, packs, videos and webinars covering a range of topics. However, the fundamental point here is that the Government has committed to recruitment and retention of staff, which is a challenge, for posts in the 93 CDNTs, which provide supports for 42,000 children. The Government has provided a 17% increase in staff, with an additional 272 staff in 2024. Ongoing recruitment issues are being addressed but it is important to understand that the HSE disability budget for 2025 has grown to €3.2 billion, which is an 11.6% increase.

I conclude by being sensitive to the case the Senator raised, to the family and to the matters which he has raised previously in the House. This matter is a priority for the Government and for the Minister of State, Deputy Naughton. I will work with Members of the House and the Senator to ensure that Government is held to account for this. He referred to reiterative failure. I do not disagree with him in many cases. I think he is right. The one thing I disagree on is that many of us do put a value on and cherish all of our children equally. There is a system failure or if not a system failure, then whatever it is, there is a significant need and void that we need to fill. The Senator knows that my sincerity on this matter is genuine, as his is. I will work with him to ensure that Eve Lynne and her family get the best outcome following this Commencement matter. I will work with the Senator and other families, as many of us in this Chamber do daily. We have a huge challenge. When Senator Rabbitte was Minister of State in the Department, she did significant work and should be credited for that. We have to bring the system further on the road. I look forward to working with the Senator.

Tom Clonan (Independent)
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I absolutely acknowledge the Minister of State's sincerity and that of Senator Rabbitte on these matters. The Minister of State mentioned the CDNTs. The CDNTs are completely and utterly dysfunctional. My understanding is that the person who launched the CDNT programme was seconded to the HSE. They were not a clinician. There was never any clinical sign-off on the CDNT system and they have absolutely destroyed what little we had. There was never any clinical risk assessment of what would happen to our children and now it is happening. That person has utterly evaded any responsibility. I am hoping that we get the committees up and running because I want that person in front of the committee on disability matters to answer those questions. We need to have clinicians in the place where children are, in the school setting. I know there is a pilot for that.

I will introduce the Minister of State to Kelly-Marie to see if he can follow up on Eve Lynne's case, but we should not have to do this on an individual, case-by-case basis. Families like Kelly-Marie's should not have to go public and tell their story. It is like a perverse version of "The Hunger Games". We have to go on "The Late Late Show" to get wheelchairs for our children. It is like a show of Ireland's sickest family, to try to get basic supports. It is just not good enough. It is a circus. I say that in the worst possible sense. Our disabled citizens need rights-based legislation to completely put an end to this bit-by-bit attritional attempt to help people.

Jerry Buttimer (Cork South-Central, Fine Gael)
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I am conscious of the need, as are Government and the Minister of State, Deputy Naughton, to address the challenges in the provision of services for children with disabilities and their families. I again commit to working with Kelly-Marie on behalf of Eve Lynne. The Government is fully committed to advancing the progress of recruitment and retention of staff to enable capacity-building in CDNTs. Notwithstanding the comments the Senator made, it is important to acknowledge that CDNTs are currently providing services and supports to 42,000 children-----

Tom Clonan (Independent)
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They are not.

Jerry Buttimer (Cork South-Central, Fine Gael)
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-----with 93 teams across the country. I accept there are varying degrees of service provision. The teams are also providing strategies and supports for urgent cases as the waiting list for staffing resources allows. In 2025, €10 million was made available for children's services, building on existing recruitment issues, with funding focusing on various positions across CDNTs, with new therapist posts, staff grade posts, health and social care assistant posts and clinical trainee posts. I reiterate that the Government is committed and the Minister of State, Deputy Naughton, is determined to work to ensure the discrepancies and, as the Senator said, the reiterative failures are addressed. We will work to ensure that the CDNT capacity is increased and that the appropriate level of services for children with disabilities is provided.I fully agree that we have let many of them down. We need to do a lot more. I reiterate the point that from my conversations with her, the Minister of State, Deputy Naughton, is determined to address the anomalies. I look forward to working with the Senator on the matter and I thank him for raising it this morning. I also thank Kelly-Marie for being here this morning.