Sinn Féin TD for Dublin South West Seán Crowe has said that there is no use in the government talking up the budget surplus when children with special needs have to wait for years to get an assessment and then wait years more to get support.

Speaking in the Dáil last night, Teachta Crowe said:

“Over 4,000 children are waiting on a Stage 1 assessment for services in the CHO7 area of Tallaght, west Wicklow and north Kildare alone. Those 4,000 children waiting to be seen represents a 33% increase in the last two years in my area.

“An Taoiseach said today that tackling child disabilities is one of his priorities, but parents and their vulnerable children in my area have seen little outward evidence of this concern. Children are being left behind in dire need of disability support services at an early age. Supports like speech and language therapy, which would give them the best chance of accessing education and leading the same lives as their peers, are not available.

“The Pay and Numbers policy is austerity by another name. Austerity in an era of a €24 billion surplus. It is not only cruel; it is unbelievable and it is wrong. Hundreds of posts have been wiped out with a stroke of a pen when there is no excuse not to be doing all we can to fill these vitally needed posts. That is only one aspect of the shambles that the Government has made of the health service.

“I have long campaigned for the better treatment of Section 39 workers. The State was happy to outsource the vital work these workers do in our communities but then completely abandoned its responsibilities to these organisations. Is it any wonder that disability support organisations cannot keep staff or provide services when they cannot keep staff on 2009 levels of funding?

“It is no longer sustainable for Section 39 providers to be expected to bail out the State for its inability to provide services when the Government refuses to increase supports and funding despite its boasts of huge budget surpluses. Disability groups in Walkinstown and Tallaght have ongoing difficulties in getting the State to release funds so they can maintain services for the most vulnerable. Those are far from isolated cases.

“The Government likes to talk about how well the economy is performing, but for whom? It is not for the people who rely on disability services for some semblance of normality or the parents who have to shell out for private assessments and treatments because the community disability teams are chronically understaffed and need key personnel.

“Children with special needs should not have to wait for years to get an assessment and then wait years more to get support, but that is the reality facing many families in my constituency.”