What does it say about our society, Government and State if there is, in the middle of a storm, a 15-year-old girl who is to sleep outside the Dáil for 50 hours? What does it say that she started her sleep-out around the same time as a protest by a large number of disability organisations that were crying out to the Government not to make them poorer, as the Government has just done through the budget, and crying out for a winter emergency payment? It points to the utter failure of the State to vindicate the rights of children with additional needs. The ask is extremely simple and basic: stop breaking your own law, provide the assessments of need and then the therapies. What is happening shows how messed up the priorities of the Government are. The priority is to splash the cash for the fast-food bosses, big multinationals, builders and developers instead of caring for children with additional needs. The motion contains simple actions that the State could take to end the assessment-of-needs backlog. The Government is not opposing the motion, but is the motion just going to go on a long list of very good motions, including motions we have proposed, suggesting how the Government can deal with this problem, while it does absolutely nothing about it? Will it just join the law in something that the Government ignores? What is the target date to provide all the assessments within six months? Since the Government is not opposing the motion, it should be able to name that date. What is the emergency action plan? What is the longer-term workforce plan? How much additional funding will be allocated to provide special needs services and appropriate school places for all? I want to mention an awful, tragic case I was asked to raise, namely that of a young girl called Jannah, who was 12 at the time she tragically took her own life. She had been waiting for three years and ten weeks, which is about 12 times the legally required period within which her assessment of need should have started. Her mother contacted the authorities seven times to say the case was urgent and that an assessment was needed. The girl did not receive any assessment or any of the services she needed. It is an absolute disgrace.

Sentiment score: -0.13