Carol Nolan: Demands Emergency Action on Therapy Backlogs

Thank you Cathaoirleach. I would like to welcome you to this meeting and I am delighted to be able to speak to you on this very important topic tonight. I would like to welcome you to this meeting because it is one of the most difficult meetings for people of all ages. It is very important that we have a meeting like this again, because we had a topic like this before. I am happy to get the opportunity once again to speak on this very important issue when it comes to disabilities. I feel that we keep saying the same thing over and over again in this chamber. I know certainly as someone who has spent over a decade in education, I taught many children with special needs throughout the 10 or 12 years I taught in schools. I observed firsthand the level of frustration and the level of desperation at times that exists among parents and even among class teachers who are trying to access adequate supports for children in terms of ensuring that they reach their full potential, as is laid out as a vision of our 1998 Education Act. Every child must be enabled to reach their potential, but how can they honestly reach their potential if they are not supported? That is something I am very, very concerned over. I would go as far as saying at this point that the children in Offaly and Leash with special needs are being neglected in terms of the lack of access to therapy. This has gone on and on. I was elected in 2016. This was one of the first issues I raised on the floor. The lack of speech therapists, the lack of occupational therapists, the lack of dietitians, the lack of psychologists. It's becoming a huge issue. Lately, that was confirmed to me very clearly when I dealt with a case where a young child had been referred at a primary care team meeting in December 2023. That child had been referred to a dietitian and an occupational therapist. But because those vacancies aren't filled, I believe, there is a problem and that child still hasn't had access. That's nearly three years ago and that child has regressed. There's no doubt about that. If that's not a fine example of neglect, I don't know what is. I think there has to be a change of direction. I've said it time and time again that Offaly and Leash is one of the worst in the state in terms of no therapists, in terms of vacancies not being filled. I can't for the life of me understand why therapists from the other CHO areas where there isn't a backlog can't be brought in to Offaly and Leash to clear the backlog, along with private therapists. We're hearing about recruitment all of the time from the HSE, but this has been a long sorry saga. It's gone on too long. I know of children who have not received speech therapy and they have digressed considerably. How is that child going to reach their educational potential? It's not fair. It's leading to a lot of distress within children. Also within parents, it's causing huge stress for them because they're frustrated and rightly so. School principals are frustrated and teachers are frustrated. We're all seeing it time and time again. I think the mess in Offaly and Leash needs to be sorted out. I'm calling here once again for emergency action solutions to be put in place. I've outlined those solutions. I think the therapists should be brought in from CHO areas where the list isn't as long and private therapists also in to clear the backlog. I would hope that those solutions in the short term could be taken on board because children are being failed and they are being left behind by the whole ordeal in Offaly and Leash. I just want to mention another example of failure and lack of planning and lack of efficiency. Last week, it was brought to my attention that the portal that deals with SNA applications wasn't open for one particular school in Offaly to make their application for September. Bearing in mind that the schools will be all closing in June, I think it's grossly unfair on the school and on the child with special needs. That child and their parents don't know if they're going to have an SNA for September. I think it's very unfair. It's not giving anyone a chance really. I would hope that that could be cleared up. I have written to the Department of Education and await their response. I do hope that timely action will be taken to sort out that because that's a basic thing. A portal not being open for a school to make an application for an SNA, that shouldn't be happening. Not in this day and age. If there's a shortage of staff in the department, they should be taken from some other department. There needs to be practical actions taken. Just a common sense approach. Go back to basics and clear the problems. That's what I'm recommending we do here tonight. We have debated other issues such as respite care shortages, inadequate home supports, therapy waiting lists, and the implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities time and time again. In February and March last year, and in contributions before that, the same pleas were made. As I say, families are really worn out. They're worn out from fighting for basic but vital services that really should be automatic. They tell me all of the time in my constituency office that they really are battling. Every day is a battle for them. It could be in terms of trying to access basic supports to school transport, and then trying to make sure that their child is catered for. As I say, it's talked about in our Education Act about the importance of collaboration and working with people and making sure that inclusion is a top priority, but we're not seeing it. We're not seeing joined-up thinking. It's very, very disjointed. The services all need to work together in tandem, together with schools particularly. Children are definitely regressing without timely occupational therapy or speech and language support, and carers too. It's important we mention them because our carers save this state billions every year. They don't get fair play because when it comes to respite, it can be very, very difficult for them to take time off. I think that that issue also needs to be looked at, as well as the home helps that support our elderly people in their homes. That needs to be looked at. If a home help takes time off, as they're entitled to, there needs to be a replacement person immediately. We have to make sure that people with disabilities are most vulnerable in society are being looked after. This government will no doubt point to its national human rights strategy for disabled people from 2025 to 2030. Let me quote directly from it. At all stages, the views and opinions of disabled persons, their organisations, and other relevant stakeholders will be central to delivery. We are committed to building their capacity where needed to support them in providing this strong voice. But to the families on the ground, this reads as little more than hollow rhetoric because they are not seeing that. They're not seeing that in their lives every day when they have to cope with things they shouldn't have to deal with, when they have to battle and fight for access to basic therapies or when they have to battle for SNAs with the school principal. It's not happening. Where is the real meaningful action and where is the urgency? Where is the accountability when respite places remain chronically underfunded in rural counties like Offaly? The strategy speaks of central involvement, yet families tell me that they feel sidelined and that their experience is reduced to consultation check boxes rather than driving real and meaningful change. People have had enough of the tokenism and the ticking of boxes that people use for self-preservation or whatever it's for, but we need to see meaningful and genuine change. As I say, it's going back to basics and putting short-term solutions in place until we can devise more long-term sustainable solutions. We can't keep kicking the issues concerning disabled people down the road with strategies and plans while people suffer, and particularly children suffer. We need to move from the déjà vu debates that we've had here over and over again, it's like Groundhog Day at times here, to actual delivery. People need to have confidence in the government that it is delivering for people with disabilities, and we're not seeing it unfortunately, it's not there. Obviously we need adequate funding to be delivered if necessary through an emergency funding package, such as the motion suggests, but I do suggest that we take short-term actions and put therapists in place in Offaly and Leash as soon as possible. Go raibh maith agat.