A few weeks ago the Tánaiste was taking Leaders' Questions and I brought up a difficult case in County Roscommon of a youngster who has autism. He basically rips 20 T-shirts a week, takes out everything from the fridge at night, and can go out and damage the car. His father was at his wits' end and actually lost his job over it. His father was looking for residential care for his child but, unfortunately, nothing has been provided yet. The Tánaiste said he would look into it and he has all of the documentation. I hope that he will.

To make matters worse, it has come to my attention from people in the Tuam and Dunmore areas that children who have different disabilities within the children's disability network team 7 are waiting five years for assessments, and one child is waiting 13 years. A HSE report from 2023 to 2026 said on the service improvement plan that there are 16,500 children waiting, with 19,000 waiting for an assessment of need. We are seeing this constantly. I do not know if it is the west of Ireland or if this is all over the country where children with different disabilities need assessments and care plans; the resources do not seem to be put in place, regardless of whether it is speech and language or other services one wants. There is a major problem because, as the Taoiseach may know, with autism if a child does not receive the help between the ages of two and eight, things become more difficult and we need to be clear about that. I am asking the Taoiseach and his Government what they intend to do to ensure the situation is addressed.

Our Constitution states that we cherish all of our children equally. These children have got a bad deal from this State at the moment with the resources that have been given to them. With a little help, many of those youngsters would be able to go on to fulfil a very normal life but if we deprive them of the requirements they need at the moment, it will not do justice to those children down the road. Tomorrow, the parents in Tuam will be forced at 12 noon to go out to protest about the situation and the way they are being treated. I am asking the Taoiseach what this Government will do to help those children and those families, these mothers and fathers who work every day with their children and want to do the best for them. I am asking what the State will do to help those mothers and fathers and, especially, those children.

I thank the Deputy for that question. I am afraid to say that this is a problem all over the country and all of us have had this experience in representing our constituents, in meeting parents whose children are waiting far too long for the assessments they need and then, after that, the therapies they need. It might vary from area to area, or one community healthcare organisation, CHO, to another, but it is a problem across the country and has been for quite some time now.

There are a number of aspects to it. Part of it is the difficulty in recruiting sufficient skilled staff to meet the enormous need which exists. In response to that we have dramatically increased the number of training places so that more people are trained to take up positions, particularly as therapists and psychologists. It may take a little time for that to come on stream but it will happen.

We have also introduced new assistant grades and have changed work profiles, for example, to bring more people into the service. There is a real difficulty with the assessment of need because there is a legal right not to therapies but to an assessment of need. While that was well-intentioned, it has had some unintended consequences. The courts have determined that an assessment of need is a very long process, taking over 30 hours per child. That means resources that would otherwise be used to provide therapies to children are used in carrying out very long assessments of need that may not actually be necessary. That is a real problem which we have to try to work out in some way in consultation with the different NGOs and representative groups because if a child needs a particular therapy or treatment, it is often very obvious and it would be much better if they could get that right away rather than having to wait for an assessment of need which takes two or three days' work for an individual therapist.

What the Taoiseach has said does not give great hope for those parents who are waiting at the moment. In fact, I know of a parent today who had to go to the other end of the country to pay for a consultation and a diagnosis. It is not acceptable to have to travel 120 or 130 miles to try to get a diagnosis and to pay for it themselves rather than the State helping them out.

While it might be a problem right across the country, there is also a problem with many speech and language therapists being unable to get a full-time contract. They will receive so many hours and that is it.

There is also legislation, namely the Optional Protocol to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Why has the Government not brought that into law here? If it is put into law it puts a liability and legal onus on the State to ensure that the Government gives help to those people with those disabilities. Will the Government bring that in?

I do not think that parents having to pay for therapies or assessments is the solution but I understand why many parents have to do that because they are waiting so long. There is a mechanism now by which the HSE can refund part of the cost of doing that and we want to expand that during the year but I do not think that is the solution on its own. It might help in some cases but it is something we are willing to do, which is to refund some or all of the costs where parents are effectively forced to go privately because they cannot get the assessment or therapy they need.

On the UN convention, the last Government, which I had the honour to lead, ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. It is the intention of this Government to ratify the optional protocol and we will do that.

Getting back to what I said earlier, it is a mistake to think that the legal rights or UN conventions build houses or provide therapies. They do not. They become another basis for litigation and very often that ties up the staff resources and budget of the State in defending litigation and paying damages. We need to be frank with each other and with people about that. Creating legal and constitutional rights does not train nurses or build houses. It does not mean that there are ten therapists there where there used to be five and, in fact, it can actually backfire sometimes. That is because time and resources then get diverted into managing litigation, in paying lawyers and damages, rather than being spent on services.