Paul Murphy: Condemns State Failings Over Child Disability Assessments
Paul Murphy criticised the state for failing children with additional needs, focusing on a backlog of assessments and missing therapies. He demanded an emergency action plan, a six-month target for assessments, and clear funding and workforce commitments.
Murphy described a 15-year-old who spent 50 hours sleeping outside the Dáil and simultaneous protests by disability organisations demanding a winter emergency payment and warning that recent budget measures had made them poorer.
He argued the ask is simple and legal - provide the assessment of needs and then provide the therapies - and accused the government of breaking its own law. He pressed for a named target date to complete all assessments within six months and asked the government to specify an emergency action plan and a longer term workforce plan.
Murphy noted the government was not opposing the motion but questioned whether it would merely join other motions that are ignored. He asked what additional funding will be allocated to deliver special needs services and appropriate school places for all children who need them.
He highlighted the tragic case of Jana Shehzad, a 12-year-old who took her own life after waiting three years and ten weeks for an assessment - about 12 times the legally required start time - and who received no assessment or services despite repeated urgent contact from her mother.
Protest and sleep-out
Murphy described a 15-year-old who spent 50 hours sleeping outside the Dáil and simultaneous protests by disability organisations demanding a winter emergency payment and warning that recent budget measures had made them poorer.
Legal obligations and demands
He argued the ask is simple and legal - provide the assessment of needs and then provide the therapies - and accused the government of breaking its own law. He pressed for a named target date to complete all assessments within six months and asked the government to specify an emergency action plan and a longer term workforce plan.
Government response and motion
Murphy noted the government was not opposing the motion but questioned whether it would merely join other motions that are ignored. He asked what additional funding will be allocated to deliver special needs services and appropriate school places for all children who need them.
Personal case cited
He highlighted the tragic case of Jana Shehzad, a 12-year-old who took her own life after waiting three years and ten weeks for an assessment - about 12 times the legally required start time - and who received no assessment or services despite repeated urgent contact from her mother.
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Transcript
What does it say about our society, about our government, about our state, that there's a 15-year-old girl in the middle of a storm, sleep-leaping outside the Dáil for 50 hours? What does it say that she started that sleep-out around the same time as there was a protest of a whole number of disability organisations, crying out to the government not to make them poorer, as they've just done in the budget, crying out for a winter emergency payment? It points to the utter failure of the state to vindicate the rights of children with additional needs. The ask is extremely simple, extremely basic. Don't break your own law. Stop breaking your own law. Provide the assessment of needs and then provide the therapies. It shows how messed up the priorities of this government are. To splash the cash for the fast food bosses, for the big multinationals, for the builders, for the developers, instead of caring for children with additional needs. The motion contains simple actions that the state could take to end the assessment of needs backlog. The government is not opposing the motion. But is this motion just going to go on to the list, a long list of very good motions, including motions we've proposed, suggesting how the government can deal with this problem, but which the government does absolutely nothing about? Will it just join the law in something that the government ignores? What is the target date to provide all the assessments within six months? Since you are not opposing the motion, you should be able to name that date. What is the emergency action plan? What is the longer term workforce plan? How much extra funding is going to be allocated to provide special needs services and appropriate school places for all? I want to finally just mention a particular case, an awful tragic case that I was asked to raise. A young girl called Jana Shehzad, who was 12 at the time, so she tragically took her own life. She was waiting for three years and ten weeks, about 12 times over the legally required of when the assessment of needs should have started. Seven times her mother contacted and said, this is urgent, we need an assessment. She did not receive any assessment. She did not receive any of the services that she needed, an absolute disgrace.