Before I raise my issue, I wish the Ceann Comhaire and her team, including Jill Gray, and every person who works in the Oireachtas a happy Christmas. We are incredibly well looked after. Sometimes it is a bit lost on us how well served we are. This is a very decent place to work because of the men and women who keep it going. I hope everybody gets a chance to spend a bit of quality time with their family, because they have all more than earned it. I hope the Ceann Comhairle gets a rest. It has indeed been a very busy year. I thank the Minister of State for being here to take my topical issue, which relates to the length of time children in my constituency, in particular, must wait for an assessment of need, AON. It would be remiss of me not to raise the volume of representations I have received, even in the past two or three hours, on what is being referred to as the Government's decision, quietly embedded in a press release, on the AON process. They come from teachers, people working in the area of special education and, crucially, parents. They say diagnosis matters. It is not a bureaucratic hurdle. It provides children with an understanding of their own identity, strengths and challenges and it equips teachers to provide informed and effective supports. They want to know who will conduct these educational assessments. Will teachers be expected to take this on? What training, what capacity and what safeguards will exist? How can educational assessment conducted without diagnostic expertise determine appropriate placement in complex cases? There are real concerns. I received a deluge of lobbying before I came down here. They have a simple request. They want the Minister to publish in full the proposed criteria and decision-making process. They want clarity on the future status of special education designations. They want this paused to facilitate the discussions, which I feel are important. This Topical Issue specifically relates to my area, but my area is part of the wider picture. I represent one of the youngest and most rapidly expanding areas of Dublin, but the children in my area who require an assessment of need appear to be left waiting. I think they are the longest waiters in the State - 3% of children in Fingal received an assessment of need within the legal minimum timeframe compared with a national average of 10%. A national average of 10% is an absolute disgrace but 3% is even worse. I represent the youngest town in Ireland. If ever there was a need for additional resources to be targeted, it would be in my area. Parents watch their kids wait and wait for assessments of need. If the Minister of State wants an estimation of just how bad things are, it was reported in The Times Ireland weekend edition that there is now a buy-now-pay-later service being offered for therapies. I have spoken to parents who are so desperate to get the assessments of need for their kids that they will actually go private when they do not have the money. It is grand for those who are loaded, but most people are not. They might borrow from a family member, get a credit union loan or do a few shifts of overtime if there are any going, but very often, there are not. Then they find themselves in debt but they still have to keep paying for therapies. The Minister of State might acquaint herself with this buy-now-pay-later, BNPL, service because I fully intend to raise this every single time. It is disgusting that people would be forced to get into debt for what their children have a legal entitlement to. These companies have the neck to advertise this stuff because they know how desperate parents are. They know that parents desperately need these assessments for their kids. This BNPL service is evidence of a failure on the part of the Government.

Sentiment score: 0.04

I suppose the Minister of State's recognition of the scale of the problem is welcome. I know she was not making a massive deal out of it, but going from 1,893 to 1,841 is nothing to be proud of really. She should probably be a bit mortified. That figure of 1,841 children in my area represents families that are just left waiting. They feel very much abandoned. On the establishment of 11 new teams, the Minister of State might indicate in her second reply how many additional staff that will provide. Will they be joined up with the children's disability network teams, CDNTs? Will they be joined up with community healthcare organisations, CHOs, local health offices, LHOs, and the network? Will they be a stand-alone network of their own? She might explain to me how that will work. She might address the use of BNPL offers. It is debt built up by people who cannot afford to pay out of their own pocket for a service that the State is legally mandated to provide for their kids. They are getting themselves into debt for a service that they have a lawful entitlement to. That is a fairly damning indictment. I appreciate the Minister of State is not long in the job but her party has been more than 14 years in government. The evidence of kids being failed, specifically the 1,841 in north Dublin, is all around us. I have already outlined teachers' serious concerns over what was in the Government's press statement. Teachers in this area, with the interests of the kids at heart, do not trust that what the Government is saying will work. There is no clarity there and I hope the Minister of State will be able to put some clarity on it.

Sentiment score: -0.06

Happy Christmas.

Sentiment score: 0.57