Paul Murphy: Calls state a 'national disgrace' on children's services
Paul Murphy criticised the state's treatment of children with additional needs, calling it a "national disgrace" and urging immediate action on waiting lists, staffing and school placements. He outlined long delays for assessments of need, widespread gaps in therapy and intervention provision, and high vacancy rates in community disability networks (CDNTs).
Campaigners and families
Paul Murphy paid tribute to campaigners in the gallery and those watching remotely, saying their perseverance has kept the issue on the political agenda. He referenced personal accounts, including an Irish Examiner piece describing a child who waited years for assessment follow-up and interventions despite an early autism diagnosis.
Scale of waiting lists and unmet needs
He set out specific figures from his remarks: almost 10,000 children are overdue waiting for assessments of need, 110,000 children are waiting for necessary interventions and therapies, and almost 10,000 are waiting for a first contact from their CDNT. He highlighted hundreds of children without appropriate school places and thousands transported daily at a cost of almost 100 million euros a year.
Court cases and financial strains
Paul Murphy noted that 25 families are forced each month to take the state to court to secure basic legal entitlements, with the state using taxpayers' money to contest those cases. He argued that a future apology will not address the immediate human and financial costs borne by families now.
Workforce vacancies and service failures
He pointed to severe staffing shortages across CDNTs, citing campaigner-compiled FOI data that show national vacancy rates over 30%, rising to around 40% for occupational therapists and about 70% for dieticians and play therapists. He named local CDNTs with acute shortages, including a 50% vacancy at Chamber House and a 60% rate at St. Columbus in Crumlin.
Political choices and call for immediate action
Murphy blamed political choices for the crisis, contrasting the state’s past efforts to defend corporate interests with its failure to resource services for vulnerable children. He urged colleagues to act on measures in the motion now rather than wait for an apology, warning that affected families — working with campaigners such as Cara Darmody — will mobilise outside the Dáil and aim to make the issue a key election topic.
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First of all, I want to really thank and pay tribute to the campaigners who have been able to join us in the gallery today and the many campaigners who are at home and are unable to join us today but are watching online or on Oireachtas TV or wherever else. Their perseverance, their strength, their courage to keep fighting for their children in the face of adversity is what keeps this issue on the political agenda and which ultimately means that we will be successful. We need to just really keep it up. I think it is undeniable that how children with additional needs are treated in this state is a national disgrace. I think it is such a disgrace and I am confident of this that in years to come a Taoiseach will be sitting over there making a state apology for how these children were so badly failed by the state. The problem is that it is not much use. It is not much use when we are where we are today in 2024. It does not do anything for the almost 10,000 children who are overdue waiting for assessments of needs. It does nothing for the 110,000 children who are waiting for necessary interventions, necessary therapies. It does nothing for the almost 10,000 children amongst those who are waiting simply for a first contact from their CDNT. It does nothing for the hundreds of children who remain without appropriate school places. It does nothing for the 25 families who are forced every single month to take this state to court, to have the court, to have the state use taxpayers' money to fight against them just to get their basic legal entitlements. It does nothing for the thousands of children who are transported across the state on a daily basis in the morning, in the afternoon, at a total cost of almost 100 million euros a year because there isn't an appropriate school place locally for them. We could stop all of that now, instead of waiting for a humble, very sorrowful apology in the future, we could actually act on some of the things that are contained in the motion to stop leaving these children behind. There is a very moving piece in the Irish Examiner a couple of days ago by a journalist, Joe Fogarty, who is speaking about his own experience with a daughter with autism. He writes, a hearing test just before her second birthday in 2020 didn't show up any issues. The following year we applied for an assessment of need and in September 2021 secured a cancellation appointment. It was one of the infamous 90-minute meetings that lasted less than an hour. The report produced by that review team found that she needed to be assessed for autism. Her service statement, which was to follow the report, within a month we had to seek through an upheld complaint and a subsequent appeal when that complaint initially went unheeded. We didn't receive it until May last year. Almost three years on from her preliminary assessment that found grace required the aforementioned interventions, she has received none of them from the CDNT, except for the assessment which diagnosed her autism, something we also had to fight for so she could access a preschool suitable for her needs. That is not an unusual story, it is an extremely common story. I have so many parents contacting me who I am in touch with who precisely are in this. I was just talking a moment ago to a woman who first had contact in 2020 and he has been told she won't get any services until 2026. Multiple, multiple, thousands of thousands, tens of thousands of families waiting for necessary interventions. The question, I think, we can all say this is terrible, we can all say this shouldn't happen and this is what we will hear, but the question is why? And at bottom, and this is what the government will not admit today, at bottom there are political choices. You look how hard this state under Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael fought for years for the rights of Apple, one of the richest, most powerful corporations in the world for their right not to pay any taxes. And contrast that with the lack of resources, the lack of struggle, the lack of fight for the most vulnerable children in our society. A series of horrific political choices, the choice not to have appropriate school places in every single school, not to have a special class in every school, there are schools that have said we are happy to have a special class and simply cannot find the staff. The massive, massive vacancies in the CDNTs right across the country. One of the very impressive campaigners I have met through this work compiled a full list, every CDNT in the country through FOIs, to establish the number of vacancies, and it is absolutely horrific. We have some of them, some of the highlights or lowlights in our motion. A large vacancy rate of over 30% nationally, rising to around 40% for occupational therapists, 70% for dieticians, 70% for play therapists, and particular problem spots in particular CDNTs, like Chamber House with a 50% vacancy, like St. Columbus in Crumlin with a 60% vacancy rate. The choice not to have sufficient special needs assistance. The final point I will make is that you would be making a grave mistake to underestimate those families who were affected, to underestimate their will to go to public meetings, to mobilise outside the Dáil next week with Cara Darmody to make this a key election issue. You would be very wise to act now, instead of trying to plamost them, and hope this goes away.
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