Tá córas againn sa Stát seo maidir le measúnú do pháistí atá riachtanais sa bhreis acu. Níl an córas sin ag obair, ní raibh sé ag obair riamh, agus níl an Rialtas ag déanamh faic dó. This morning, RTÉ has shone another light on an issue we have had to raise in the House for far too long and far too often. This is the time that children are waiting for an assessment of need for which an average waiting time of 19 months, despite a legal requirement for assessments to be completed within six months under the Disability Act 2005. Some have been waiting up to two years and more. The six-month timeframe is crucial because it recognises the vital importance of early intervention for children in these circumstances. It is one of the only legally set timeframes to which the HSE must adhere. It was put there for a very valid reason. Despite this, the State has consistently failed to live up to its legal requirements to ensure children can access an assessment of their needs. This is crucial to ensure the best possible outcome for every child.

If we do this within the timeframe, proper outcomes for every child will be possible but this is not happening. Nine out of every ten children are being failed by the State with regard to their legal right. Children are being left behind and parents are at their wits' end waiting for an assessment for their children. They know that without a diagnosis for needs such as autism and communication difficulties, their children will not be able to get the vital supports and services they need.

A couple of weeks ago, the Sinn Féin leader, Deputy McDonald, raised this issue with the Taoiseach. She raised the fact that parents are currently before the courts trying to address the situation and obtain an assessment of need for their children within the legally specified timeframe. Here again, we have another situation where citizens of the State have to go to court to vindicate their rights and the rights of their children. I will not comment on an individual case but it has become the default position of the State to force people into stressful and expensive legal battles instead of throwing up its hands and saying it was wrong. These parents deserve an apology and support, not a legal battle to ensure their children are afforded their legal rights in the first place.

The Tánaiste should put himself in the shoes of these parents and imagine a day or a week in their lives, or a month or a year with no light at the end of the tunnel, watching and worrying as delay after delay causes harm to their children - harm that is absolutely avoidable. Walking this walk with these parents is the only way to understand why the timeframes of three and six months are set as a legal right. Will the Government do the right thing? Will it ensure children receive the care to which they are entitled under law? Will it act to ensure that no parent of a child with special needs must go to court to obtain vital and legally guaranteed supports for their children?

I formally congratulate the Leas-Cheann Comhairle on her recent election. I know she will do a fabulous job.

I thank Deputy Doherty for raising this important question. All of us know from our personal lives, people we know or constituents who come to us with their problems and difficulties how big an issue this is. Children are waiting for too long to get an assessment. We know that more than 6,000 have been waiting for more than six months to get the assessment of needs they need. It puts a lot of stress on them and on their parents and families. We know the delay in an assessment of need can be very expensive in the long run because earlier intervention means better outcomes sooner, and a delay in intervention can result in higher costs for the taxpayer in the longer term. This problem has existed for a long time and it is one we acknowledge and want to resolve.

The new Government is committed to improving access to assessments and therapies for all children who require them. To achieve this, some important reforms are now under way. The HSE disability service is engaged in a major reconfiguring of its existing therapy resources for children with disabilities into multidisciplinary geographically based programmes. This is part of the national programme for progressing disability services for young people. The objective of this is to make sure we bring about equity of access to disability services so it should not matter what part of the country children live in as they will have equal access to those services, and to provide consistency with a clear pathway to the services for children with disabilities and their families regardless of where they live, what school they go to or the nature of their particular difficulties.

Additionally, a revised standard operating procedure for an assessment of need has been developed and implementation began in January 2020. Obviously, a lot of this was delayed as a consequence of Covid and the fact that assessments could not happen one to one. They could happen over a video link but not in person. Everyone will understand why this is not the same thing. The new procedure provides a standardised approach to assessment in all areas and is designed to ensure children with disabilities and their families can access appropriate assessment and intervention as quickly as possible. The reforms involve important structural changes that will have a positive impact on services for all children with disabilities, including those with autism, and the budget provided an additional €2 million in funding for an autism plan for these services.

The Tánaiste said he understands and rightly made the point this has been ongoing for a long time. Two years ago, when I raised this with the then Tánaiste on the floor of the Dáil, 3,850 children had been failed by the State. Today, the figure is more than 5,000. It is only going in one direction; it is getting worse. Two years ago, we heard excuses from the Government on reforms being introduced. The reality is the State is fighting these parents in the courts. There are numerous cases where parents have been forced to go to the courts to vindicate the rights of their children with special needs because they are being failed in regard to their legal entitlement to have an assessment of need carried out within six months. The State is not saying it is sorry and that it will support and help the parents and that it is trying to do better, the State is fighting these cases. These families are at their wits' end. Being a parent of a child with additional or special needs is a challenge in itself without having to battle every single day for services and supports. This is only the first hurdle. After the assessment of need, there are numerous other battles to get speech and language therapy, SNAs and all of the other supports, including school placement. Will the Tánaiste give a guarantee the Government will not fight these parents in the courts anymore and put in place a robust package of measures to make sure no child is denied his or her legal right?

I thank the Deputy. I cannot possibly comment on court cases on which I have no information. Even if I had information, I probably could not comment on them either. Certainly anybody is entitled to take a case to court but we all appreciate this issue will not be resolved in the courts. It would not be right to give preference to people who go to court as opposed to those who do not. This is not a problem that will be solved through court cases or by paying lawyers' fees. This is a problem that if it can be solved it will be solved by additional resources where they are needed and the proper use of existing resources. This is the approach the Government is taking.