Disabilities Assessments
Dail Éireann — 2026-06-23
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Ruairí Ó Murchú (SF), Louth

We have the figures. None of them are good enough. Unfortunately, despite all the initiatives that have been taken, we have not drastically dealt with that figure. That is the frightening part. It is the one right that parents have. It is sometimes the only right they can vindicate through the courts and there is therefore huge emphasis on it. However, as we all know, it does not provide you with the therapies, which are absolutely necessary. I am going back to the idea of putting a system in place across the board. I am worried that, even if we were to recruit all the occupational therapists, speech and language therapists, and psychologists for which there are unfilled positions in the CDNTs, in primary care and in the in-reach teams, which is probably not possible to do without a huge increase in workforce planning, we would still not be able to deliver on the need that is out there. We have to look at this in a far more comprehensive way that relates to how we deal with disabilities across the board. At the UN conference, we discussed the idea of mainstreaming, making reasonable accommodations and allowing full participation for those with disabilities. We need to stop this failure.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-06-23/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:55:06+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-06-23