I wish to talk about the most incredible 15-year-old, Ms Cara Darmody, who is here with us today in the Gallery with her dad. She is doing the job that this Government still refuses to do. Yesterday, Cara Darmody and her dad Mark, while Storm Bram battered this country with dangerous winds and weather warnings, spent the night outside the gates of Leinster House, beginning her 50-hour sleep-out to once again expose the ongoing scandal with assessments of need delays. She is only 15 years old but she is carrying a fight that should rest on the shoulders of this Government. There are 18,000 children waiting for an assessment of need. That is expected to rise to 25,000 by the end of this year and this State is breaking its own disability law in 93% of cases, failing to complete assessments within the six-month legal limit. Cara said yesterday: "While Storm Bram is blowing I will really suffer out here... [but] it is a symbol of the pain and suffering that families go through when services... and therapies aren't given... in a timely manner." She is so right. Families should not have to rely on a child, a schoolgirl, to shame a Government into obeying its own laws. Cara has already succeeded in securing a €20 million donation to Cara's fund. She negotiated a national recruitment campaign with the HSE but as she has said, "The Government has given me a car, but has forgotten to give me the keys" and without therapists, "the car doesn't drive". The truth is that without urgent therapist recruitment nationally and internationally, children will remain stuck, unsupported and failed.

If a 15-year-old girl can show this level of courage, surely this Government can show some urgency. I request an immediate debate in the House on the assessment of need crisis, the staffing collapse within the children's disability network teams and the emergency action that must now be taken to recruit therapists and uphold the law. Children cannot wait any longer, parents cannot carry on this burden and no child should ever have to sleep outside Leinster House to force a Government into action.