Government ‘smashing the law' over failure to provide assessment of needs to kids within six-month window, campaigner says
The 15-year-old said she will 'vigorously resist' any change to the six-month timeframe, because to allow longer delays 'would cause further permanent damage to children.'
The Government announced it was examining a change in the law, after it emerged that the majority of children are not being assessed within the legal timeframe. But it has not given any indications of what those changes would be.
Ms Darmody - who has two brothers Neil (12) and John (8) who are autistic and severely and profoundly intellectually disabled - has been addressing the Oireachtas Committee on Disability.
'Let's cut straight to the chase – I'm here today to call out the blatant Assessments of Needs law-breaking by the Taoiseach and the Government. Three different Taoisigh have made promises to me to fix this issue, and all have dramatically failed,' she said.
There are over 15,000 children 'left to rot on HSE Assessments of Needs waiting lists,' she said. 'Shockingly, the HSE revealed that the figure will go to 25,000 by Christmas. All because the Government is 'asleep at the wheel' and acting in a 'non-emergency' mode of action.
'No advocate has been more respectful or kind to our Cabinet members than me. In fact, I really like every single one of them and I love meeting them. But let's call a spade a spade - they are dramatically failing children with disabilities right now. Worse still, they are law-breakers and I'm calling that out bigtime right here.'
She is urging the Government to declare the issue a national emergency:
'The Cabinet are breaking the law, the Taoiseach is breaking the law. I get it that they don't want to hear that kind of criticism, I do, but it's the truth – they are law-breakers when it comes to Assessments of Needs. And if they don't like that criticism, then here's my advice – stop breaking the law'.
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