This is a very important moment for this House. It is not every day we see all Opposition parties co-sign a motion and I thank Sinn Féin for using its time tonight to bring this forward. It is such an important conversation we will have here tonight. I am pleased to speak to this motion on behalf of the Labour Party. It is a motion which calls out Government failure to get to grips with the assessment of need process and puts forward a number of solutions. I hope the Government will listen tonight and work with the Opposition as well as with all of the parties in government to get solutions once and for all. I also will take the opportunity to acknowledge the ongoing campaign and great work of Cara Darmody, who I and my party have engaged with over a long period. Cara is representing so many families with her continued campaign. She has worked tirelessly to turn her own family's circumstances into a national campaign that has already helped so many families and I have no doubt, having met Cara and her father Mark, will help many more families into the future. It was quite damning that in the past few weeks, the now Minister for Education and Youth described the assessment of need process as no longer fit for purpose. That is something that I and many people in the Labour Party, along with Cara and so many other campaigners, have been highlighting to the Government for a long time now. The Minister unfortunately made these remarks without offering any alternative to reform the process. This followed a statement earlier this year from the HSE that it had not a hope of complying with the assessment of need law. Most recent figures show that nearly 18,000 children are now overdue an assessment of need while the HSE is projecting the waiting list for an assessment will grow to over 25,000 by the end of the year. As my colleague from Kildare South said, figures for Kildare-Wicklow show that there were 1,692 children overdue an assessment in the first quarter of 2025. This has now increased to 1,828 children in quarter 2. Over 90% of the children in Kildare and West Wicklow are overdue an assessment by three months or more, far greater than the national waiting list of 85% waiting three months or more. Even if a child gets the assessment of need completed, it basically is not worth the paper it is written on because so many are still waiting to receive the vital therapies the assessment recommended for them and their families. We are all aware of the need for early intervention for these children but the reality for children in my county of Kildare is that there are nearly 1,500 of them waiting for occupational therapy while close to 1,600 are waiting for speech and language therapy. Families are simply finding themselves with no help and no direction for their children. Parents are now taking things into their own hands by forking out thousands of euro on services that should be delivered by the State. Families are eating into their savings and borrowing from their families, friends and the local credit union, just to get their child the best start in life. I know this because these families are in my office every day of the week, asking me what they have to do for the State to help them and their child. Only today, the Government rushed to publish a press release that says it will deliver targeted reforms which the Minister says will result in a faster and more efficient assessment of need. I honestly hope that for the potential 25,000 families this will be the case but I cannot help but think this is the Government making policy on the hop, not really knowing how to get to grips with this crisis and hoping for more time. The Minister said there will be 11 new teams, made up of different therapists. I am not sure if she is aware, but we can barely staff the current CDNTs throughout the country. Will she outline how she intends to recruit these new staff? Where will these new teams be based? Looking at the current staffing figures, there is an 18% vacancy rate, with 445 unfilled roles, across the CDNTs. At this stage in the discussion, I want to highlight the national child development centre which was to be developed in Kildare town by Sensational Kids. As the Minister will be aware, this centre, built to roof level in the town, had to stop because of funding. It would have provided 300 children every week with life-changing therapies, reduced waiting times for families with nowhere else to turn and allowed children to reach their full potential. It would have helped the State further reduce the waiting times for assessment of need and, vitally, train many of the therapists that we need to fill the roles I mentioned. I ask the Minister to talk to the Taoiseach and the Minister of State, Deputy Emer Higgins, about this important matter. Solutions to assist in this crisis can be found in this new development in my county. I plead with the Minister to engage with Karen Leigh and her board to bring this potential solution for so many families to reality. I welcome the continuation of the waiting list initiative into 2026. This is a commitment the Labour Party received in this House a number of years ago and one for which I know Cara Darmody has fought since she began her campaign. This will help those waiting the longest to finally access an assessment. Hopefully, a young child from my home town of Athy who was 12 the last got an assessment will be one of them. His needs now are those of an adult as he is now 23 years of age. Up to last week, he had not received any services. We must remember that there is always another child waiting to be seen and, as the Minister said, behind every number is a child waiting. I am dealing with a lot of parents who are completely stressed by the need to have a diagnosis by 1 October each year to enable them to make an application for a special class or special school. In many cases, the paperwork needed seems to be never-ending for these families. Letters and parliamentary question replies I have received from the NCSE tell parents the State is aware of their child's needs for a place and that the NCSE will work with them to secure such a place. Parents are naturally worried, concerned and confused. With this in mind, I welcome the news tonight that the Department of Education and Youth will remove the requirement to have a diagnosis for a child to be enrolled in a special class or special school. It is a positive announcement, but a question remains, and perhaps the Minister can clear it up tonight. Why do we have to wait until 2027 for this to happen? Why can those parents contacting me and so many of my colleagues not get the relief this will provide in September 2026? This week alone, I have been dealing with three families who have had their applications for domiciliary care allowance turned down. In all cases, they are waiting on an assessment of need. I contend that this is one of the main reasons these families are being turned down. I am sure the Minister, like me, sits down and goes through a heartbreaking day-to-day diary with such families to enable them to appeal or request a review of such decisions. They depend on private assessments to get their applications for domiciliary care allowance over the line. Many simply cannot afford to do so. I contend that without the assessment of need, they are being turned down. It is heartbreaking to listen to these families. Children are pulling their hair out, not socialising with children of similar ages, sitting by themselves in school playgrounds, not sleeping at night, not able to clean themselves after they go to the toilet, yet they are still being turned down for this payment because they do not have an assessment of need. That is wrong. The day-to-day diary is gut-wrenching and emotional. I only hope that this latest attempt by the Government will speed up assessment to prevent these families from feeling that nobody is listening to them and the Government simply does not care. It seems like every day is a fight for these families. Every day they have to fight for various services for their child. If it is not an assessment, it is the therapies. If it is not the therapies, it is a school place or a bus place. These families have to fight tooth and nail for something that is an automatic right for every other children in this State. For those with additional needs, it is always a fight. I will tell the Minister one thing. These families are not going anywhere. They will fight and fight until Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael finally get their act together and start delivering for children with additional needs. The Government must give a clear commitment to families on when it plans to comply with its legal obligations to the assessment-of-need process under the Disability Act 2005. It must have a clear and immediate action plan that gets to grips with the growing waiting lists. The workforce challenges must be addressed. Vital services, such as speech and language therapy, occupational therapy and physiotherapy, must be properly resourced. Children must have access to special schools and school places in their local area. Most importantly, the Government must give certainty to families on when their child can access an assessment and the services they need, so that the constant battle can finally stop, once and for all.

Sentiment score: 0.11