I am sure the Leas-Cheann Comhairle will not mind if I take this opportunity to wish Katie Taylor, our undisputed world champion, all the very best as she steps into the ring in Madison Square Garden tonight. We are right there in heart and spirit with her. Go n-éirí léi.

Tá sé 20 mí anois tar éis don Rialtas maoiniú éigeandála a gheallúint don chéad uair chun cúram riachtanach a chur ar fáil do leanaí le riachtanais speisialta, ach go fóill níl an t-airgead ar fáil. Tá sé seo scannalach. I have received confirmation that vital funding through the children's disability grant first announced by the Government 20 months ago has still not been released. It is even worse than that. I have a letter stating that despite funding for organisations having been publicly announced by the Minister, organisations have been asked to reapply for short-listing with no guarantee that funding will be provided for projects or be granted.

The grant was announced in 2023 as an emergency fund to fill a gaping hole left by the HSE which was not able to provide vital therapies for children. That was 20 months ago. Parents and children with special needs thought the Government had finally heard their cries for help, but the months went on and nothing happened. No funding was released. Just two days before the local elections in June 2024, then Ministers, Senator Anne Rabbitte and Deputy Charlie McConalogue, held a press event in Donegal re-announcing the funding. Local lad Jack Donaghy, who has cerebral palsy, and his mother, Denise McGahern, were included in the photo op. They were understandably delighted the funding was finally being provided for Jack and many others.

Fast forward nine months to March 2025, there was still no sign of the money being released. Denise went public to express the disgust and anger she felt at her son being used as an election prop for a Government photo op. In March, the Tánaiste apologised for the situation going on for so long and said it would not defend something that was indefensible. In regard to the funding, he said that he was going to make sure it is released and provided.

Five days after the exchange between me and the Tánaiste in the Dáil, the Government again announced that funding would be released, yet despite his promises here we are. Three months on no funding has been released or provided. Therapies are still not available. The 54 organisations which thought they successfully applied for the grant have not received a single red cent. Not only that, it gets worse. Some of the organisations concerned understood they would get millions of euro over a three-year period. Funding was announced by the Minister. However, organisations have been told they have to reapply for short-listing and the funding is no longer multi-annual but instead needs to be spent by the end of the year. Organisations only have until the end of the year to spend money that they have not been given.

I have a letter from one of the organisations, which publicly announced what it would receive and has now been told to reapply, stating that there is no guarantee of funding, there is less money than the organisation thought and it all has to be spent this year. The Tánaiste told me in March that he would resolve the issue and make sure the money would flow. The Government has announced this funding on three separate occasions, and each time its promise has disappeared without a trace. There is no follow-through, delivery or funding.

This is about kids with special needs. It is about kids like Jack, who has cerebral palsy.

It is about kids who are in braces, kids who are trying to speak, kids who are PEG-fed and kids who want to walk who are suffering as a result of this. These children and their parents are left crying out for help they have been promised and promised again. It is cruel what the Tánaiste's Government is doing to them. There is no other word for it.

I am going to ask the Tánaiste a couple of questions. When is the money going to be released? When will the funding be put in place so the therapies can be delivered to these children who desperately require them? Can he explain to me why, when two Ministers from the previous Government's Cabinet went to Donegal and announced specific multi-annual money for these projects, the HSE is now telling them there is no guarantee they will even get funding and that there is no multi-annual funding available any more? What is a Government promise worth any more, especially to these children and their families? These are the questions they are asking me today.

First, I join the Leas-Cheann Comhairle in remarking on the fact tomorrow marks the 30th anniversary of the Srebrenica genocide in Bosnia and Herzegovina. This was one of the most horrific atrocities ever to take place on the European Continent and an atrocity that resulted in the massacre of more than 8,000 men and boys. It is our duty as a country, a Parliament and an international community to remember the brutality and devastation that occurred. I know we all join the community today.

Deputy Doherty mentioned Katie Taylor from Bray. I join him in wishing her all the best.

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. He was right when he raised it in March. I did take action, as did the Government. I think the Deputy raised it on a Thursday during Leaders' Questions and on the Monday, from my memory, we had a meeting of the Cabinet committee on disability and agreed to sanction a fund of €8 million - again from memory - into what was called the children's disability services grant fund. That decision was taken by the Government on foot of the engagement the Deputy and I had here. I have been asking about this pretty regularly because these are important projects and, indeed, I had an opportunity to speak to the head of the HSE, Bernard Gloster, about it only this week as part our ongoing regular engagement.

In relation specifically to the Donegal group, I understood they are in very regular contact. I think there has even been contact this week between them and the HSE. I am also told they have been assured their costs will be funded. From a Government point of view, we have allocated the €8 million. I take the point about the delay and I apologised for it, but we have now sanctioned the funding. I can fully understand that there might be final compliance checks or governance checks. I do not say this rudely to the groups, but it is the first time some of them have ever received public funding or the likes. I take the point that the HSE has to do that, but we want to see the money flow. Because of the importance of the issue, while I accept there are more projects than those in Donegal, I will ask that we have a meeting of Donegal Oireachtas Members. I will ask for that to be arranged with the relevant Minister or the HSE next week to try to bring a finality to this situation. Our commitment on this was solemn. It was an €8 million fund.

More broadly, because I am conscious that people are watching this, therapy services for children is an area in which there needs to be huge progress and we are endeavouring to reform that system. That is why we have taken decisions only in recent weeks to establish a new national education therapy service led by my colleague, the Minister, Deputy McEntee. We should be in a position to start recruiting for those posts in the coming weeks, I hope, starting with special schools and then rolling the project out more broadly after that to special classes and then mainstream schools. That is an important step and we have seen when it comes to assessments of need this year that there has, thankfully, been a very large increase in the number of children now getting them, although there is much more work to do on that.

On foot of Deputy Doherty raising this, and I can only imagine the genuine frustration of Denise and Jack and other Denises and Jacks, we will arrange for that meeting next week and I will keep in close contact with the Deputy. From the Government's point of view, I am clear, because I was in the room, that we have sanctioned the €8 million. We did that in March. I will ask for a specific meeting to take place with the Deputy and other Donegal Oireachtas Members next week.

The Tánaiste will forgive me for saying that is not good enough, because we have been here. He promised he would make sure it was being provided - not just sanctioned and released but provided. None of these groups have got it. The Tánaiste is absolutely right that they have been in contact this week. I have the letter here. Does he know what it says? The groups need to reapply for short-listing. The Tánaiste's Ministers turned up to Donegal and announced the project. One project got €3 million over a three-year period. It was well deserved for the massive work they are doing. The letter says the funding is not multi-annual and has to be spent in 2025. That commitment is gone. The letter also said funding for the grant scheme is less than originally expected. That is why people have to apply.

It is not just the groups in Donegal. I am a Donegal Deputy and there are four groups in Donegal but there are 54 groups across the State. There are children whose names I do not know who are equally entitled as Jack. It is disgraceful. This is 20 months on and this is emergency funding. Why? Because the HSE is not able to provide the therapies and supports for these families and their kids. I do not know what we have to do to get this money released, but when a government stands up, right or wrong, and promises disability services are getting X amount of money, then it needs to deliver on it. This letter tears up that commitment. The Tánaiste needs to do more than respond to me three months ago and then nothing happens. The communication is worse. Parents are seething at what is happening. It is just not good enough. I am asking the Tánaiste for a commitment he gave here in the Dáil. He said every eligible project, 54 of them, should get the €8 million funding. I am asking him to ensure every single project, including the four announced in Donegal and the levels of funding announced for them, will get the funding they need because these are therapies and support the children and their families so desperately need, 20 months after this was first announced.

I am very clear, not just from my perspective but from that of the entire Government, that on 25 March of this year, the Department of Children, Disability and Equality secured sanction for the €8 million grant fund. There is a budget of €3.2 billion for disability services, as the Deputy knows, and €8 million of a grant fund was sanctioned for the Department of Children, Disability and Equality on 25 March. From the Government's point of view, once it was sanctioned, we expected it to be drawn down and spent. In light of what Deputy Doherty has brought to my attention, I will of course follow this up again. I had conversations on it this week, coincidentally, where I was told there were some final compliance and governance issue with some projects. Again, I do not say that as a slur but just before the final governance issues in terms of the drawdown of public money. That is what I was told was the situation this week.

It would be useful, if we take the Donegal projects as an example, to convene a meeting next week of Oireachtas Members with the relevant HSE and departmental officials. I undertake to get that in place. I will also talk to the Minister of State, Deputy Naughton, and the Minister, Deputy Foley, about this matter today. From the Government's perspective, the funding has been allocated and now needs to be spent quickly for the benefit of these children.