I attended a protest outside the gates of Leinster House this morning at 11 o'clock by Every Child Matters, a campaign established in counties Cavan and Meath by parents of children with additional needs. It has now spread to most other counties in the State. Afterwards in the audiovisual room, six mothers attending that protest came in to speak to us about their experiences. Their contributions were extremely powerful but heartbreaking. It was shocking to hear about the lack of support for their children with disabilities and additional needs. They have had to fight for everything - assessments for autism or ADHD and services. The CDNTs insist parents do training and deliver therapies themselves to the children. Parents are in favour of doing everything they can to support their children but they are not trained therapists. The children also need support and input from therapists. They are not getting those services at all. Most of them told us they had not had one session of physiotherapy or occupational or speech and language therapy - nothing - since the service was established.

CDNTs were established under a policy called "progressing disability". We have to realise this is not working. It should be renamed "regressing disability" because successive Governments and Ministers have failed children, young people and their families by not providing the services they need. A level of dependency is being created in future adults if early intervention and the supports children need at this stage are not provided. Children's rights need to be recognised. The State has responsibility to meet them. It is not doing so at the moment. It is letting them down. It is not listening to parents either. The CDNTs say it is a parent-led service yet they will not listen to parents when they talk about what their children's needs are.

I ask for a debate with the Minister for disability on the lack of services and supports for children with additional needs.