Taoiseach says HSE 'not in a position to fulfil law' on disability assessments
The HSE is "not in a position to fulfil the law" requiring the completion of the Assessments of Needs process within six months, Taoiseach Micheál Martin has stated.
The Fianna Fáil leader also suggested that legislation around Assessments of Needs must be amended.
Tipperary disabilities activist Cara Darmody, 14, started a 50-hour protest outside Leinster House at 10am on Tuesday morning over the State's Assessment of Needs (AON) process.
An AON identifies whether a child has a disability, the nature and extent of the disability, and any health and education needs that may arise.
Under law, once the HSE receives an application in writing, they must start the assessment within three months and complete it within an additional three months.
However, there are now 15,296 assessments overdue.
In a parliamentary question response to Labour TD Alan Kelly, the HSE stated that it anticipated that as many as 24,796 AONs would be due for completion by the end of the year.
Cara Darmody told the Irish Mirror that the Government is breaking the law by not completing assessments within the required timeframe.
She said: "Three previous Taoiseachs, Micheál Martin, Simon Harris and Leo Varadkar, promised me change when I last met them and they didn't bring that change and they broke their promises.
"They promised that they were going to help me to bring this issue to an end, that the Government would stop breaking the law and that didn't happen.
"That's why I'm up here again, because Government are breaking the law by not assessing children within six months of the legal application when they apply for the assessment.
"The government should be following the law and they should not be breaking and smashing the law.
"This is the only issue in Ireland where they're actually breaking the law, and that is absolutely disgraceful."
In the Dáil, Social Democrats' acting leader Cian O'Callaghan asked what actions the Government could take immediately and "will you start complying with the law?"
The Taoiseach responded: "The HSE is not in a position to fulfil the law right now. You know that and I know that.
"We have to respond to enable us to get therapy services to children as effectively, optimally as we can.
"That is our agenda – To use the resources we have for children who need services.
"That's both existing resources, how we add to those resources through recruitment and retention, and increasing the number of therapy places within our third-level colleges, to work on therapy assistance, more greater provision there.
"But we have to, as a society, work smarter in terms of utilising the resources that are there right now in terms of therapists for the benefit of children."
Mr Martin also said there needs to be a "change in legislation to ensure that therapists are directed and streamlined to provide services to children more quickly than currently is the case".
Disabilities Minister Norma Foley said she accepted the AON system is "broken" as she suggested there will be a "root and branch" review.
She said that the Government is "committed to streamlining the AON process to make it more efficient and to ensure that children are getting access to the therapies that they need".
She argued that 30 per cent of assessments found that children have no disability at the end of the process. This, she said, could take up to 90 hours of assessments, which she branded "absolutely ridiculous".
Minister Foley stated that, following engagement with Social Protection Minister Dara Calleary, AONs will no longer be required for people to gain domiciliary allowance.
She also stated that she does not believe it is necessary to have an assessment to access social housing.
Minister Foley also stated that she has engaged with the HSE and its CEO, Bernard Gloster, and she has accepted his "full commitment" to make this a priority.
She added: "We will be working as a unit to ensure that where there might be issues of bureaucracy or where there might be issues of tardiness or whatever, that will not become the norm."
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