Cork TDs raise concerns about lengthy needs assessment waiting lists in the Dáil

Cork TDs have raised concerns about waiting lists for assessments of need (AON) for disability services, suggesting that staff shortages are the root cause of the backlog.

It comes as The Echo revealed this week that more than 1,200 children in Cork are overdue an AON — 77% of these by more than three months.

Speaking in a Dáil debate on the topic last Tuesday, Cork East Sinn Féin TD Pat Buckley said: “Parents in Cork are waiting up to 30 months for these assessments for their children.”

“This is a far cry from the six months’ waiting time required by law. In fact, more than 90% of assessments of need are completed outside of the legal time limit.”

Independent Ireland TD for Cork South West Michael Collins said: “In West Cork, the waiting time is over 27 months to be assessed. Children then have to wait for services, and this can take four to six months. The child is losing nearly three years between waiting for assessment and getting services.”

Highlighted

Cork East Social Democrats TD Liam Quaide highlighted the 50-hour sleep-out on Kildare St in front of Leinster House by Cara Darmody, a 14-year-old disability activist, which she began on Tuesday.

“Cara is taking this action to highlight the more-than-15,000 young people in this country who are overdue an assessment of need,” he told disability minister Norma Foley. 

“We hear from the HSE that this figure could reach 25,000 by the end of the year.”

Mr Quaide warned against changing disability legislation, reminding the minister that in 2020, a previous attempt to shorten AONs led to High Court action as the assessment in question was deemed clinically inadequate.

Services stymied

“That led to further escalation in waiting lists for AONs afterwards because so many children had to be reassessed,” said Mr Quaide, adding that the problems were “mainly because services, in particular primary care, have been stymied from carrying out clinical work, both assessment and intervention, not just by the official HSE recruitment embargo that took place between October 2023 and July 2024 or the unofficial embargo that has followed since in the form of the pay and numbers strategy, but also by years of severe under-resourcing.”

“If we keep privatising and fragmenting services, these problems will be more intractable.”

Mr Quaide proposed instead overturning recruitment restrictions on primary care services by the pay and numbers strategy and commencing a comprehensive recruitment drive.

“Many families are getting stuck in the AON pathway because primary care is not available to them,” he said.

 “They believe the only way they can access support is through the AON process.

Staffing was also raised by Fianna Fáil TD for Cork North Central Pádraig O’Sullivan, who asked how “a service such as the Rainbow Club in Cork can advertise for a physiotherapist, an SNA or a speech and language therapist, and get genuine competition for the job it is advertising, but that is not the case for the HSE?”