This is World Down Syndrome Day and I know that the Taoiseach will want to join me in sending good wishes to all members of the Down's syndrome community and their families in Ireland and throughout the world. I wish I could say services for people with Down's syndrome and other intellectual disabilities were even adequate in the State, but, sadly, they are not. Under the Disability Act 2005, the assessment of need must begin no later than three months after receiving a completed application form and be completed no later than three months after the date it begins. A constituent of mine who was told that her daughter would have to wait 12 months for an assessment of need made a complaint to the disability complaints officer. At the time she had complaint No. 1111 about the assessment of need process and was told that there was a five to six-month delay in even responding to complaints. Is that right in this day and age? The child in question was referred in May 2016 for an assessment of need and there is no sign of any such assessment coming down the tracks. It is likely that it will be May of this year before the child is assessed, which is truly shocking. Recently I received two separate telephone calls from parents whose children were attending the child and adolescent mental health services, CAMHS, in south Tipperary suffering from severe social anxiety and other mental health issues.

These children have been referred to the early intervention and disability services team for an assessment of needs but they have been told to expect delays of 12 to 18 months. Can the Taoiseach imagine those households, the anxiety, pressure and stress on the parents? These children were due to start secondary school in September and have no services. Even the fact they have received urgent referrals from CAMHS should be sufficient to ensure they are seen to but that is not sufficient. There are major issues, even after the assessment, where children who have been assessed are left waiting for occupational therapy, speech and language therapy and physiotherapy among other services. What is the Government doing to address this? Along with the Minister of State, Deputy Finian McGrath, it ratified the UN convention last week. I was told by the same Minister of State that a major reconfiguration of the therapy resources for children with disabilities, aged up to 18 years, was well under way. The national programme, Progressing Disability Services for Children and Young People, from zero to 18, was supposed to bring staff from different services providers together into children's disability network teams. It has not happened. Will the Taoiseach give us some assurance that this will happen? When will it happen? Is there any point to ratifying conventions and having Disability Acts passed if we do not put our money where our mouth is and put the people in place to deliver these services?

I thank the Deputy for raising this question and reminding us of the day that is in it. I am not in a position to comment on individual cases. I do not have the information to hand and, for reasons of privacy, I should not do so anyway. If the Deputy wants to pass that on to my office or that of the Minister of State with responsibility for disability affairs, I will certainly have it examined. We absolutely acknowledge that there are unacceptable delays for people waiting for their assessment of needs. With regard to what we have been doing, to give a few examples, the Deputy mentioned that after decades of delays under many previous parties that served in government, we have now passed a Dáil resolution to ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The Minister of State, Deputy Finian McGrath, will travel to New York to deposit the instrument of ratification in the period ahead. We also made a major change relating to medical cards. The Deputy will know that for years, particularly when other parties were in power, people with disabilities, particularly children, had to fight for their medical cards. We changed the law last year to ensure that any child with a severe disability in receipt of the domiciliary care allowance had a medical card as a right, irrespective of their parents' income. Some 10,000 additional medical cards were provided that way and 40,000 children no longer faced reviews of their medical cards. The Deputy will recall that the Government led by the party opposite took €11.50 a week from people with disabilities and carers. We have started to reverse those cuts. The first reversal was last year and the second reversal will happen next week, when there is a €5 per week increase in the disability allowance and carer's allowance. We intend to fully reverse those cuts to people's welfare payments in the next budget, and more. We fully reversed the cuts to the respite care grant and, later this year, we will extend the doctor visit card to all carers in receipt of carer's allowance.

The Taoiseach might restore their grant while he is at it.

That answer is pure useless, toothless and fruitless, for that matter. Instead of a €5 million spin machine, would the Taoiseach install mirrors in his office and get a gramophone that will tell him that he is in power, in government, that it was not like that when he got here, that he has been in power for seven years now and should stop blaming the past for everything? He should have someone to pinch him every day to remind him that he is in power and should not be tweeting about something else. He is not even remotely engaged with the people. There are over 1,100 constituents in Tipperary alone waiting for these services. When will the Minister of State put in place psychotherapists, occupational therapists and others? Going to America will not fill many of those positions. In Clonmel alone, those vacancies have been compounded and the dreadful situation in south Tipperary clearly needs to be addressed urgently. What is the HSE doing to ensure that the vacancies in the intellectual disability services are being filled? I suggest that it is doing nothing. It is time for the Taoiseach to get real, cut out the spin and get some substance into his Taoiseach-hood before it passes him by. The people will not be interested in spinning when he goes out to knock on the doors. They will be waiting in the long grass and the grass will not be cut either.

I see the Deputy got his speaking points from the Fianna Fáil press office this morning.

I do not have that privilege.

Well done on working on those lies. The Deputy is correct that I have been in office for seven months-----

Seven years.

Seven months as Taoiseach and seven years as a Minister.

The Taoiseach has not done much in seven years. He is a bad case. Someone should take him away.

I have given the Deputy many examples of the kinds of things that the Government has done in the last seven years, such as a major increase in funding for disability services, the almost total reversal of the welfare cuts made by Fianna Fáil for people with disabilities, and the extension of medical cards as a right to children with severe disabilities. They are very real things which have really made a difference for real people. We have targeted three things we particularly want to do this year with regard to disabilities. The first is a significant improvement in respite. Some 12 new respite houses will open across the country. We are confident that we will get them all open through the course of the year. The Deputy will know that respite is a lifeline for families. Sometimes, the fact that they can get some respite keeps them going.

I thank the Taoiseach. His time is up.

We will also extend legislation to extend free general practitioner care to everyone in receipt of carer's allowance. At long last, we will ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

On a point of clarification-----

No. Tá sé críochnaithe.

I do not know where the Fianna Fáil press office is. They do not let me in there anymore.

No one in the press office is upset about that.