Tipperary Teenager Cara Darmody is to commence a 50-hour protest outside Leinster House at 10am tomorrow Tuesday, to protest about the Assessments of Needs (AON) crisis that has over 15,000 children waiting on Assessments. In response to a recent Parliamentary Question the HSE’s written response forecasts that 24,796 will be waiting for an AON by the end of 2025.
The teenager from Ardfinnan has had considerable success to date in getting the Government to provide additional funding(€10M) for private assessments but wants the service to be properly staffed and funded. A child in need of an Assessment to get a diagnosis and to identify therapies that might be necessary is to get such an assessment within 6 months of it being requested under the Disability Act.
All Opposition Party Leaders will gather outside Leinster House tomorrow in full support of the campaign which is backed by a Dáil motion from the combined opposition to pressure the Government to increase services. Ms Darmody says it is a national disgrace and an international embarrassment as regards how children with Autism or Intellectual Disabilities are treated in Ireland as school places can also be difficult to access.
Cara Darmody has 5 specific requests of the Government –
- firstly to declare the situation a national emergency to activate an emergency type of action & thinking,
- extra funding to Cara’s Fund for private assessments,
- set up a taskforce to examine if legislative changes or tackling recruitment barriers would improve the situation,
- an immediate and extra allocation to clear the backlog of children waiting for therapies such as Speech and Language, Occupational therapies and Physiotherapy
- and the fifth request is that Ms Darmody be allowed to the address the Cabinet sub-committee on Disability.
