Health Services Waiting Lists
Seanad Éireann — 2026-06-30
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Aubrey McCarthy (IND), University of Dublin

I thank the Minister of State for being her today to discuss something that is very important, especially to the people in the Gallery. Both the Minister of State and I appreciate that across our health and disability services there are dedicated professionals working every day to support children and families with additional needs. My purpose today is not to criticise those front-line staff but to be constructive and ask what more the Government can do to ensure autistic children receive the timely assessments, therapists and school places that they deserve.
My question is as straightforward as I put it. What immediate actions are being taken to reduce waiting times for autism assessments, to ensure therapies are delivered without years of delay and to provide sufficient special school places for children who need them?
Over recent weeks I have been looking into this and have been contacted by various people and parents. Even though their stories are different, there is a common thread and the pattern is the same across the board. I work with a chap called Ger and his seven-year-old son, Ethan, has autism and global development delay. Although his assessment of need was completed over two years ago, he has only received a handful of speech and language therapy sessions and his family has worked constructively with the services. They have attended all the meetings and they have sought solutions but they are still waiting for the interventions that are recommended in Ethan's assessment. They are not looking for special treatment; they simply want the supports the State has identified as necessary.
Another parent, Samantha, who is present in the Gallery, told me she was advised to expect a two-year wait for her daughter, Eva. Out of desperation she went to Lithuania where her daughter was assessed within weeks and began receiving immediate intervention. When they returned to Ireland, they found themselves waiting once again. No family should have to leave their own country to access basic supports for their child.
The Cathaoirleach has welcomed our Deputy Lord Mayor, Alison Field, into the building. Alison's son, James, is 12 years old and is non-verbal. His family knew there was something wrong when he was two years old yet they waited almost two years for an assessment of need instead of the six months required by law. After receiving that assessment, the early intervention service basically disappeared for them and James received just a handful of speech therapy sessions before being transferred to another team where, despite being non-verbal, he has received virtually no speech therapy for years. Alison has fought for a school place. In the early days she got 19 refusals before securing a place in an autism class. Now James is heading for secondary school but she has already received 18 refusals for an appropriate special school place this coming September.
What struck me most about Alison is that she went to the petitions committee, she was heard in Europe, and the NCSE here has known about James's predicament since he was five years old and knew he would need a secondary school place yet here we are going into July and there is none there. Families welcomed the introduction of the new national autism assessment protocol and it is a positive development. Protocols are great but they need to reduce the waiting lists. Children need clinicians, therapists and appropriate school places. It is not simply about the assessments. It is about the entire pathway and too often we are seeing children waiting years for an assessment across the board. The system seems to be fragmented and families are left trying to navigate it alone.
The parents - Alison and Samantha who are present and Ger who met me - are not asking for the impossible. They are asking for assessments of need to be completed within the legal timeframe of six months and timely access to therapies, respite supports when families need them and enough special school places so no child like James is left without an education. I look forward to hearing what measurable improvements we can bring and expect and when we can expect them.

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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/2026-06-30/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:55:07+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-06-30