That is the message. The Government must stop breaking the law. It is a terrible indictment of this State and the entire system that we are reliant on 15-year-old Cara Darmody to hold this State's feet to the flames. I have often said there is always an element of failure when people have to come to politicians in order to vindicate their rights but in this case we have a young advocate who has been given no choice because of the failure that has been shown to her family and many other families. I agree with Deputy Kerrane that it is vital we show our solidarity to those from the Irish Wheelchair Association and other groups who made the absolutely necessary point today that those with disabilities, who were promised so much before the election, have been failed so miserably. In previous budgets they felt they were being seen for who they were and the cost of disability was being recognised. They were given that payment and then it was taken from them. The promise was that the Government would look at this, analyse it, review it and then look at it next year. What about this year? What about this year for all those who cannot afford to live in this world? We talk about providing them with rights and providing our citizens with the same rights as everyone else but we have failed miserably and it is a deep shame. I do not know how many times we can be back here talking about assessment of need. We all have our parliamentary questions. The answer is 18,097 are waiting beyond six months for an assessment of need and the figure is heading towards 24,000 to 25,000. There is a backlog that needs to be dealt with. There is no point in us constantly being in here and hearing about assessment hubs being put together when we do not see this figure moving. I accept there are more children on the assessment of need list than there had been previously because in the past people were put on primary care lists and were able to get services but those services are not there anymore, meaning they have no choice. The system is putting people on the assessment of need list. We all accept the best-case scenario is you are assessed in relation to what your needs are and then that your needs are delivered upon. There were considerable promises made today and we engaged previously on this but, as Deputy Cullinane said, the biggest gripe an awful lot of parents have is being told you do not need the assessment of need to receive therapies. One of the promises was that the issue of requiring an assessment of need for an appropriate school place was going to be resolved but it is not resolved yet. The Minister should tell me how that happens. We all know the issue that exists. I have no problem if a parent makes the determination they have a decent and proper means of being assessed for autism and then they can get proper therapies. I have absolutely no issue with that, if they decide and their rights are not removed in relation to AON. However, it is not promises they need. They need to see a roadmap. I do not know how many times we have been in here and have talked about a single point of access because the other thing parents give out about is the fact you have no one to go to. They end up becoming advocates themselves. They end up becoming outlier advocates and none of this is good enough. We need to make sure we do the workforce planning and take the emergency action to clear these backlogs and we need the Government to stop breaking the law.

Sentiment score: -0.08

Hear, hear.

Sentiment score: 0.00