Government can't treat 'abandoned' children on assessment list like political football, say TDs

Around 250 families with autistic children previously staged a 24-hour sleep out at Leinster House to protest against a lack of school places for kids with special needs. Cara Darmody is to stage a protest against the backlog of assessments of need. File Picture: Sam Boal/Collins Photos

Children that have been "abandoned" on waiting lists for assessment of need cannot be treated like a political football, opposition TDs are set to tell the Government on Tuesday.

Opposition leaders will join teenage disability campaigner Cara Darmody outside Leinster House as she begins a 50-hour protest against the backlog of assessments for children.

There are currently more than 15,000 children whose assessment of need is overdue, meaning they cannot access vital health services for their conditions.

An assessment of need is carried out by the HSE for children with a disability to identify what health services are needed.

In what Sinn Féin's Claire Kerrane called a "day of action", opposition TDs will take to the Dáil chamber to make statements on the matter before a joint motion is brought to the floor.

Opposition TDs working together on this issue show the strength of feeling and the urgency of the matter, Ms Kerrane said.

"If the government will is there and they treat it like the emergency it is, there are actions that can be taken," she said, adding that opposition TDs will support the Government in any steps to make a difference.

Distraught parents

Labour's spokesperson on children and equality, Mark Wall, said that not a week goes by without distraught parents sitting in front of him asking for help for their child. 

Mr Wall said he is currently dealing with more than one case where a young child is continuously hitting their head off the ground, and the only support offered to the parents is attending an online family support meeting.

The joint motion calls on the Government to set a target date to comply with its legal obligations to provide assessments within six months and to make emergency funding to tackle the current backlog.

People Before Profit TD Paul Murphy said the publicity of Cara Darmody's protest will probably result in additional money being provided, saying "the Government is still feeling the pressure on the question".

However, Social Democrats TD and clinical psychologist Liam Quaide said that outsourcing assessments to private clinicians will work as a stop gap — but warned against too much privatisation of services.

"Those assessments are costing an average of €3,300 per assessment, and then the child is left without a service following that. That is not a sustainable way of reforming services," Mr Quaide said.