Sinn Féin TD for Dublin South West Seán Crowe has said that it is unacceptable that over a thousand children are waiting on much needed therapies from the CDNT in Chamber House, Tallaght alone.

Figures released from the HSE show that there were 1,043 children waiting on various therapies from the Children’s Disability Network Team based in Tallaght at the start of September.

Teachta Crowe said:

“Figures released to me by the HSE show that there are 1,043 children on the waiting list for therapies from the Children’s Disability Network Team based in Chamber House, Tallaght as of the start of the month.

“This is entirely unacceptable and shows just how poorly this government have run our health service to the point where it cannot provide the most basic of services for children in need.

“The HSE could not even give me a breakdown of how many children were waiting for each type of therapy. We’re talking Speech and Language, Occupational, physiotherapy and psychology services but we have no data to show us where the greatest need for resources is.

“This is typical of the government’s ‘one size fits nobody’ approach and means that there is a huge amount of pressure placed on CDNTs that are already under massive strain by short staffing numbers.

“Healthcare professionals in our CDNTs work immensely hard but without support from government, they suffer burn out and are forced to leave the service which only places other staff under greater pressure with the inevitable results.

“This government have failed our children and it is time that they started taking their responsibilities seriously.”