I move: That Dáil Éireann: recalls: — that children are legally entitled to an assessment of their health and education needs under the Disability Act 2005, and that the assessment must take place within six months; and — the motion regarding Assessment of Need passed by this House in May 2025; notes: — that the law is still being broken with respect to the 18,097 children whose Assessment of Need is now overdue, and with just 4,534 assessments conducted in the first three quarters of this year the number of children being failed is rising every quarter; and — the achievements won by Cara Darmody due to her dedicated campaigning for increased access to Assessments of Needs; condemns: — the failure of the Government to stop breaking the law and to comply with its legal obligations to provide assessments within six months; and calls on the Government to: — set a specific target date by which the Government aims to comply with the legal entitlement to an Assessment of Need under the Disability Act 2005; — implement an emergency action plan to clear the backlog and provide these children with the assessments to which they are legally entitled; — deliver a longer-term sustainable solution, including an urgent workforce plan to recruit, train and retain enough staff to finally end this breach of children's rights once and for all; — fund special needs services including speech and language, physio, and occupational and behavioural therapies; and — provide appropriate school places for children with special needs. This morning, 15-year-old disability rights campaigner Cara Darmody began another 50 hour sit-out protest at the gates of the Dáil. She will sleep in a tent on Kildare Street tonight and tomorrow night in awful weather to force the Minister, Deputy Foley's Government to take real action to end the scandal of children waiting and waiting for their assessment of need. When Cara staged her last 50-hour protest back in May there were more than 15,000 children waiting. Seven months on, there are 18,097 children whose assessment of need is overdue. The HSE expects that list to reach 25,000. That is scandalous. I do not know what words the Minister would choose to describe the dreadful situation but I describe it as a national emergency. How else could one possibly describe a situation in which tens of thousands of vulnerable children, children with special needs, are denied vital help and education assessments? These are assessments that determine the treatments, the therapies and the services they will need to overcome barriers, to support their development, to determine their educational pathways and to enable them to live full lives and reach their potential. In every one of those cases the Government is breaking the law. It is breaking the law 18,097 times. Under the 2005 Disability Act, there is a legal requirement on the Government to provide a child with an assessment of need within six months but children are waiting an average of 27 months, more than four times what is required by law. Cara herself wrote that if someone asked her to find a location in Ireland where 100% of the people present were breaking the law, then she would go to the Taoiseach’s Department on a Tuesday morning for the Cabinet meeting. This has dire consequences for these children. Early intervention is key and that is why the six-month rule exists. Every day a child waits for their assessment is a delay in their development. Any parent of a child with additional needs will tell the Minister that every day makes a difference. Cara has met with three taoisigh over the past number of years, including Micheál Martin and Simon Harris. They all promised to tackle the crisis and every time the crisis only got worse. The Tánaiste last met with Cara in September. He assured her that the Government was committed to timely assessment of need but since that meeting, the waiting list has actually increased by over 1,000 children. The big question is: when will the Government stop breaking the law? We have yet to see a detailed plan setting out how the Government will comply with the legislation and deliver a comprehensive assessment of need within the six-month statutory timeframe. The Government announced reforms of the process today and we need to carefully study these proposals because the detail matters, especially for children and families already facing long delays. We have been here before. In 2020 the Government cynically chose to introduce a short-cut assessment process. Two years later, the High Court ruled this short-cut was illegal and in breach of children's rights. Year after year families of children waiting for an assessment of need have listened to big promises from the Government, promises that have been broken over and over. That has to stop now. It is time for the Government to deliver and that is what tonight's motion from the combined Opposition calls for. It calls for setting a date by which the Government will comply with the legal entitlement to an assessment of need within six months. It calls for implementation of an emergency action plan to keep clear the backlog. It also calls for the delivery of an ambitious workforce plan to train, recruit and retain enough staff needed, funding of special needs' services and therapies, and the provision of appropriate school places for children with special needs. It should not take a 15-year-old child to do the heavy lifting. It should not take a 15-year-old child constantly banging on the door of the Government for it to wake up and do what is needed in a national crisis. These children have had enough of the go-slow from Government, enough of the run-around, enough of the jaded excuses and the shortcuts. This is not going to cut it anymore. Tonight must be a watershed moment, a moment to turn the page. It is time for the Government to do its job and deliver for these children.

Sentiment score: -0.05