Assessment of Needs: Motion [Private Members]
Dail Éireann — 2025-12-09
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David Cullinane (SF), Waterford

I have attended dozens of meetings with parents of children with disabilities throughout the State. They are heartbreaking meetings because the parents are trying to do their best for their children. It strikes me that what really drives them mad, and I do not blame them at all, is hearing the Government say you do not really need an assessment to access services and you can access services without an assessment. Most of the parents I meet at these meetings do not get services. The services are almost non-existent. They are stuck on waiting lists for speech and language therapy or occupational therapy. Even for those children who get access to some services, it is patchy and only a fraction of what is actually needed for those children. All of that is really a distraction from the Government's failure, because the purpose of the original Act was to do two things. First, it was to have a robust assessment of need process that could determine the health and educational needs of each and every child and then allow the Government to plan to provide the services, which most children do not get. They go hand-in-glove. As Deputy Doherty said, because the Government could not do both, it tried to circumvent the assessment of need process, to come up with a yellow-pack downgraded version, called a preliminary teams assessment. The Government was caught out and parents brought it to the High Court. The Government broke the law and has been breaking the law ever since.
I will carry out a careful, critical review of what was announced today. I want to see the detail of it. I want to know what these assessment officers will actually do. I do not want to see this in any way as gatekeeping. We cannot substitute informal processes for what is a statutory right. That is what Cara Darmody is standing up for. Parents want the Government to deliver on its legal obligations but, as important or more important, to deliver on the health and education rights of every child.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2025-12-09/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:26+00:00
Sitting date: 2025-12-09