I have attended dozens of meetings with parents of children with disabilities throughout the State. They are heartbreaking meetings because the parents are trying to do their best for their children. It strikes me that what really drives them mad, and I do not blame them at all, is hearing the Government say you do not really need an assessment to access services and you can access services without an assessment. Most of the parents I meet at these meetings do not get services. The services are almost non-existent. They are stuck on waiting lists for speech and language therapy or occupational therapy. Even for those children who get access to some services, it is patchy and only a fraction of what is actually needed for those children. All of that is really a distraction from the Government's failure, because the purpose of the original Act was to do two things. First, it was to have a robust assessment of need process that could determine the health and educational needs of each and every child and then allow the Government to plan to provide the services, which most children do not get. They go hand-in-glove. As Deputy Doherty said, because the Government could not do both, it tried to circumvent the assessment of need process, to come up with a yellow-pack downgraded version, called a preliminary teams assessment. The Government was caught out and parents brought it to the High Court. The Government broke the law and has been breaking the law ever since. I will carry out a careful, critical review of what was announced today. I want to see the detail of it. I want to know what these assessment officers will actually do. I do not want to see this in any way as gatekeeping. We cannot substitute informal processes for what is a statutory right. That is what Cara Darmody is standing up for. Parents want the Government to deliver on its legal obligations but, as important or more important, to deliver on the health and education rights of every child.

Sentiment score: -0.03

It will not be lost on anybody that this Government wastes no time whatsoever in showing up for those at the top. It does not waste a second when it comes to big tax breaks for corporate landlords, developers and banks. However, when it comes to children with disabilities, the Government comes in, as the previous Minister did, and talks about "complexity". The word "complexity" is actually shorthand for Government failure because this issue is not as complex as the Government presents it. In 2005, a previous government put in place an Act which set out very clearly what needs to be done for children with disabilities. Each child - I do not see how this is in any way controversial or complex - should have an assessment that examines and puts in place the health and education needs of each child. At the end of the year, a composite report would then be given to the Government that looks at what is the overall ask and what resources or capacity needs to be put in place to meet that need. In reality, what has happened is not complex. It is Government failure to put in the capacity. We now have reached a crisis point, where neither the assessments nor the services are given to children. The excuse from the Government is that it is very complex, it is beyond the Government and it is more difficult than it thought. The problem is the Government did not train the therapists that were needed and it did not put in place the capacity. Children cannot be blamed for that. Parents cannot be blamed for that. The only people who can be blamed are the people who made a mess of it, which is the Government. I listened to the Minister's opening speech and read today's announcement on the Department's website. We have seen a lot of this before - providing substandard assessments of need, yellow-pack assessments of need and shortcuts to what children require. That is what I hear. There are then the assessment officers. We do not really know what the assessment officers will actually do. I can tell the Minister of State that parents and children will judge this Government on its actions, not promises, because they have had a bellyful of those. I will very cautiously approach what the Government says on this issue, bearing in mind all of the false promises made to children and their families in the past.

Sentiment score: -0.07