Paul Murphy criticises State over covered-up special needs waiting lists
Paul Murphy criticised the State for covering up the reality of extremely long waiting lists for children with special needs and demanded that resources be matched to need. He highlighted the strain on families who are forced to fight for basic services, including taking court cases and contacting TDs and ministers.
State concealment and resource mismatch
Paul Murphy accused the State of deploying ingenuity to hide the scale of waiting lists for children with special needs while failing to apply similar energy to providing the necessary resources and therapy. He argued that if effort spent on concealment were redirected into funding and services, outcomes would be much better.
Burden on families
He described how families are compelled to spend time and energy fighting for services that should be basic rights. Many are driven to take court actions or repeatedly contact TDs and ministers, and those who can afford private care often struggle even to pay for it.
Case example - Kate and Connor
Murphy recounted the case of Kate and her son Connor, who has verbal/oral dyspraxia. After an eight-month wait for a public assessment of needs, Connor faces a 12-month wait before beginning therapy that will be provided in short blocks - once a week for six to eight weeks, then long gaps between blocks.
Early intervention and evidence
He cited international expert evidence saying therapy must be regular, continuous and provided early to be effective, and criticised the current fragmented, stop-start approach. Murphy argued that children like Connor are being failed by the State's approach to assessment and treatment.
Acknowledgement of Sinn Fein's motion
Murphy began by thanking Sinn Fein for bringing the motion forward and used the debate to press for sustained, resourced intervention rather than bureaucratic cover-ups.
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I want to thank Sinn Fein for bringing this motion forward. What is striking here is the length to which the State has gone to try to cover up the reality of the extremely long waiting lists for children who have special needs. Ingenious by the State to try to cover it up. And what that stands in contrast to is the absence of similar ingenuity matched with resources to actually provide children with the care that they need. If a little bit of the effort that went into covering this problem up went in matched with resources to actually providing the resources, the therapy and so on that children need, well then we would be in a much, much better place than we currently are. The scandal, as everybody here knows, is that you have families who should be able to focus on their kids, instead having to focus on fighting for things which should just be a basic right. Who have to take court cases against the State, who have to contact TDs and ministers and try to get something for their kids. And for those who can afford it, and I think the point earlier was well made, often can barely afford it, oh go privately. Just one word about a woman I was speaking to earlier on today, Kate, her son Connor has verbal or oral dyspraxia. Today, finally they got an assessment of needs, a public assessment of needs after waiting eight months. It's going to be 12 months before he begins to get the therapy that he needs to get. He will get the therapy once a week for six to eight weeks and then it'll stop for a period of months and then he'll get it again and then it'll stop and he'll get it again and then it'll stop and they'll do it in blocks. Whereas all the best international expert evidence says you need to do it regularly, you need to do it continuously and obviously you need to have early intervention. People like Kate and Connor should not be failed by the State in the way that they are. Thereafter they do no problem at all. Well, they snacked with us. Some of them areistas who've demonstrated過來 each week to try and find the therapy before you medically powiedz Whenever people wantiku, much more of them can be done by the research saying we need to get a self-developed brain부 at all. meditation, you need their medical clinic. That's not as an equipment specialist. Yeah, there is a group of children that sounds so i-tu ho. Then we see a group of j SQL downloads. What are they doing now? But try and if you interested in your doctor, people could want to take care of his work from theен having.
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