Cabinet Committees
Dail Éireann — 2025-11-12
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Mark Ward (SF), Dublin Mid-West

I was at a public meeting last Monday in Neilstown hosted by parents of children with disabilities. They raised a multitude of areas and how their children are being failed. There are long waiting lists for assessment of need, speech and language therapy and occupational therapy. There is no access to appropriate school places. There are limited SNA allocations. They also talked about not even getting appropriate places for school transport and arbitrary timeframes for filling out forms. If they do not fill out the forms within the timeframe, there are consequences for their children.
I got a response this morning saying the average wait time for an assessment of need in my area of Dublin Mid-West is three and a half years, even though the statutory timeframe is six months. Children are being denied the right to reach their full potential. How is the Government going to address the failures children are experiencing?

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2025-11-12/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-21T01:01:05+00:00
Sitting date: 2025-11-12