Paul Murphy: Condemns 100,000 children languishing on waiting lists
Paul Murphy criticised the scale and management of disability services, calling long waits for supports a national scandal. He argued that over 100,000 children face multi-year waits for disability assistance and early intervention while staffing and funding shortfalls persist.
Scale of the problem
Paul Murphy highlighted that more than 100,000 children are waiting for disability assistance, intervention, occupational therapy and related services, affecting nearly as many families and resulting in multi-year waits for essential care.
Early intervention criticised
He said the State pays lip service to early intervention despite clear evidence that timely supports improve outcomes, calling it particularly scandalous that children are left to languish on waiting lists while services deteriorate.
FUS Ireland report findings
Murphy referenced a report by FUS Ireland that found 97% of respondents identified staffing, recruitment and retention as a vital threat to service provision. The report also recorded that 45% agreed staff pay additions play a major role in PDS's inability to retain staff, 80% felt the PDS model and reconfiguration had failed, and 16% were unsure.
Voices from families and clinicians
He quoted testimony from families paying privately for speech and occupational therapy—one family paying €90 per week for SLT and facing private psychology costs of €1,500—and clinicians reporting unworkable caseloads, burnout, stress and frequent crying at work as they manage crisis-driven workloads.
State priorities and accountability
Murphy contrasted the waits with public spending priorities, noting public funds are used to hire lawyers to oppose tax claims against a major corporation, and he echoed the report's foreword on "the lack of funding, the lack of political will to drive change, and ultimately the absence of accountability for multiple generations of children who have been failed by their government."
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Firstly, thanks a lot to the Labour Party for bringing forward this motion. It is obviously an indication of the scale of the crisis that we have, that opposition parties repeatedly have to bring forward motions addressing these issues, and unfortunately, the statistics contained in the motions get worse, not better, as we get motion after motion. Rarely, I suppose, thankfully, does the government oppose the motions, normally you accept them, you say you agree with them, you would like them to happen, but then the situation continues to worsen. The bottom line point is that it is a national scandal that over 100,000 children are waiting for some form of disability assistance, intervention, occupational therapy, etc., on waiting lists. That is an incredible number of people. And those people, so over 100,000 children, that will be close to 100,000 families impacted by that, they are set for multi-year waits in most cases. They are going to be on waiting lists, waiting for services that their children desperately need for years, before they get them. And all of that, and this is the thing that always gets me when we discuss these issues, is that the State pays lip service to the idea of early intervention, because, like, the science behind it is absolutely impeccable, obviously it makes sense to intervene as soon as possible, that has real impacts in terms of outcomes. But the State pays lip service to early intervention, but then allows children to languish on waiting lists for years, where they are not getting the assistance and the interventions that they need, and the conditions may be getting worse as a consequence. That is a scandal anywhere. I do think it is particularly a scandal in one of the richest countries in the world, when today we have lawyers paid for by the public, paid for by the same families who are on these waiting lists, fighting for Ireland not to get tax from one of the biggest corporations in the world. It speaks very much to the priorities of this State. I think the report, which Deputy Kearns referenced there, by FUS Ireland is very important. I think the work that FUS have been doing is really excellent. I think this is all about, you know, it was the disability rights movement that came up with the slogan, nothing about us without us, fighting that the voices of those affected are brought to the Senate. are brought to the centre of any decision making, etc. And it always really impresses me, the work of the likes of FUS and other campaigners, because they have enough on in their lives, they have enough stresses in their personal family in trying to get what their children need. And yet, you know, some of them feel and find the time and have no choice but to be outside the Dáil to be producing very comprehensive reports to try and get national policy changed in the direction that we need. And the report, which is about thoughts and experiences of PDS, which is obviously the new national programme, is very, very striking. So the bottom line point, and I think this is it really, 97% identified staffing, recruitment and retention as a vital threat to the successive service provision. And I think, like, you can move around the pieces in this way or that way, but like, as long as you don't have enough resources, as long as we're not employing enough staff to help children, well then we're going to have significant problems. Like, that's, that's the bottom line point. 45% agreed that staff paying additions play a major role in PDS's inability to retain its current staff and entice more to join the workforce. 80% of respondents feel the PDS model and subsequent reconfiguration has failed, while 16% remain unsure. And there's a sentence in the foreword that I think sums it up. The lack of funding, the lack of political will to drive change, and ultimately the absence of accountability for multiple generations of children who have been failed by their government. That's, that's the, that's the themes that echo throughout this report and throughout the experience of families who have to deal with this system. And when you read the quotes from children affected, the families affected, and the workers affected, it is very, very striking. And I give just a couple of those, which give a picture of it. We're sitting languishing on a list. I've been able to access SLT and OT privately. I'm paying 90 euros per week for SLT. OT assessment alone was 350 euros. Awaiting private psychology assessment in June, which will cost 1,500 euros. I have four children. Costs are high. I feel like we are absolutely killing ourselves to give our child the best chance in life. Barely contact from HSE. They don't give me any confidence or hope for a service. Another quote. I feel we've been sold a total lie. The policies, procedures and guidelines about how the services should be run and CDNTs is disingenuous, given that there isn't a team in the country that is anywhere, near adequately staffed. I've been working as a clinician in Ireland and abroad for 15 years and have never encountered such a poor staffed child-to-young person ratio. To think this is in a service for children with identified complex needs is outrageous. It is so disheartening as clinicians and CDNMs as we keep raising all the risks but seem to be getting no traction. There was another quote later that I thought was particularly telling in terms of the downward vicious cycle for the workers in these services. The point has been made by many speakers. They got into this to help children and they are faced with this nightmare situation. One person says the workload is insane. No hope of any improvement. Can't interact with families as often as I'd like as it is crisis management. Yes, health negatively impacted suffering from burnout, stress and recent onset of depression. Myself and colleagues cry in work frequently as it is all just negative experiences. The model works if there are resources to run it. I'd hate for it to be abandoned altogether without it ever being given a chance but I feel like families will never believe in it now. And there is just quote after quote after quote from both sides of the experience to tell you what the reality of that is. That is the bottom line and what comes through is the whole question of resources. I just want to finally deal with the question of education because I think again it is another aspect of this national scandal. It was highlighted by the children's ombudsman a year ago at this stage what he described as the state failing children with special needs. And you know the farcical but also outrageous situation persists every morning across the city, across the state whereby children in one part of the city get in taxis driven to another part of the city or driven to another county in some cases to be able to access the educational services that they need. It makes no sense whatsoever and it is not the best in terms of children who deserve to be educated in their local communities, who deserve to be educated in their local schools. To give you the example in Tallah we have 17 primary schools with special classes but in secondary schools we only have two. So you have a situation where people are graduating from primary school and then literally have nowhere to go and are forced to go outside their area. Thank you Deputy Sean Kenny. Thank you.
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