Disability Services Seanad Éireann — 2026-06-16 ============================================================ Pauline Tully (SF), Cultural and Educational Panel Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit. Last Friday morning, I attended a protest in Cavan town. It happened to be all mothers who were there. It was organised by mothers of children with additional needs. They were pointing out that they are not getting the supports and therapies they require from the children's disability network team, CDNT, based in Cavan. The longer children go without supports, the more complex their difficulties become. Families are finding it difficult to engage without supports and schools are finding it difficult because they are not getting the supports either. They are struggling as they try to provide the best form of education for these young people. This is the fourth protest the group has held in a year. Parents are just trying to highlight what is happening. They do not have the time or energy for this. They should not have to fight for their children all the time but they are forced to. These parents tell me that 578 assessments of need, AON, reports are overdue in Cavan-Monaghan, 511 of which have been overdue for more than three months. Only 12 AONs were carried out in the first quarter of 2026. Thousands are on the waiting list for AONs across the country and Cavan-Monaghan is no different. As the group has pointed out, delayed assessment wastes time when children should be accessing vital supports. Even those children who do have these assessments are not getting the therapies and supports they require. These children deserve support not waiting lists. The group has said that, while staff numbers within the CDNT were dismal a few years ago, they have improved majorly in the last few years. That is welcome but these parents are not seeing that in the interactions on the ground. One parent told me that she had a meeting last week with two psychologists employed in the CDNT, who hold less than one whole-time equivalent position between them. She met with the two and asked them why they were meeting with her and not with her child. It turns out that one of those psychologists has never had any meetings or support sessions with a child. The meetings with parents and training courses are important. Parents are willing to participate in those so that they are in the best position to help their children. However, that is all they are getting. Children are not getting the one-to-one therapy they require. The parents are told that if they do not undertake the next training session, which may be one they have already undertaken, their children will be removed from the list or moved down the list. There is this sort of threat over them. As I said, parents are happy to do what they need to do, but they are not trained psychologists, speech and language therapists, occupational therapists or whichever professional the child may require. Some services are being outsourced, and this is causing a problem in itself. Some of the therapists are leaving the service and going private because it is more profitable for them. Parents are trying to access the supports privately, which is putting a huge financial burden on them. However, they have to do it because they realise that early intervention for their child is so important. If children are missing these important interventions, they will not be able to progress in life as they should. Parents have also told me there are huge problems accessing CAMHS. Children may have an autism assessment, but they may also have suspected ADHD. They need the diagnosis to get treatment but CAMHS is refusing to see them. Some parents have had six refusals before finally getting an appointment for an assessment for ADHD. I know CAMHS is different but there was supposed to be a single point of access between the CDNT and private care, and that does not seem to be happening yet. Perhaps I could have an update on that. It is unfortunate that CAMHS is not intervening. Parents are exhausted. Some of the children are a flight risk and parents have to watch them all the time. The children are awake at 4 a.m. so parents are not getting the sleep they need to be able to give the child the care they need. Some are at breaking point. What can be done to address this? It is not just about increasing staff. Even if we had a full complement of staff at the CDNT, they would not be in a position to deal with the backlog of needs. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-06-16/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:55:03+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-06-16