Assessment of needs and disability supports
Deputy Bacik and others press for action on Cara Darmody’s campaign over assessment-of-need delays, therapy access and special education provision. The Tánaiste cites increased special education funding, more teachers and SNAs, and says a school-based therapy model is needed.
This morning, the well-known 14-year-old disability rights campaigner from Ardfinnan, County Tipperary, Cara Darmody, held her monster meeting rally outside Leinster House. Many of us attended and there were many parents there expressing their incredible distress and dissatisfaction at the Government's failure to provide their children with timely assessments of needs and proper services and appropriate school places. Cara is calling on the Government to give a State apology for the pain and suffering that families have experienced with these delays. She is calling for the Government to sign the optional protocol to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Of course, she is calling on Government to stop the HSE from breaking the assessments of needs law and ensure that children are assessed in a timely manner. We know thousands of children are still waiting on assessments. Cara is here with her father, Mark, in the Public Gallery. Will the Tánaiste commit to her today on behalf of the Government to those three asks? Cara has met with the Taoiseach on a number of occasions-----
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-----and she has been tireless in her campaign. I am asking for commitments on her behalf today.
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-----and, indeed, more recently as Tánaiste on the way into Government Buildings. I appreciate the extraordinary commitment she has shown in respect of this issue. It is important to point out the broader picture in terms of children, in particular those with special needs. More than 28,000 children are now being supported in special schools and classes. We have 10,000 more special education teachers under this Government, 5,000 more special needs assistants, 11 new special schools have opened and almost 1,300 new special classes have opened over the last four years. There is, therefore, very significant expenditure. The challenge is on the assessment of need and the provision of therapies. The progressing disability services programme, which was initiated in 2013, is one I do not agree with and something I sought to change within government. There has been huge resistance to that-----