Teenage campaigner asks for funding boost to clear assessments of need backlog

A teenage disability campaigner has said she is asking for more funding to help remove blockages in accessing assessments of need for children.

Cara Darmody, 14, said ahead of a meeting with Tanaiste Simon Harris that she would be asking him to stop breaking the law in relation to waiting lists for children with additional needs.

Once the HSE receives an application, there is a legal requirement for the AON to be completed within six months.

The waiting list for assessments of need is projected to soar to almost 25,000 by the end of the year, and the campaigner said just 7% are being completed on time.

“The number of (children waiting for) assessments of needs… has doubled since I started my campaign, and it’s absolutely terrible what’s going on in this country,” she said on Monday.

Asked what she plans to tell Mr Harris, Miss Darmody said: “He needs to stop breaking this law immediately, and that he must not interfere with that six-month time frame that there is or change the law in order to stop breaking the law, but to actually do something about this issue.

“And most importantly, also direct extra funding towards ‘Cara’s fund’, because there’s already been 10 million euros allocated to that, but it’s not enough, and it’s only a small drop in the ocean.

Miss Darmody, from Ardfinnan in Co Tipperary, brought with her a chocolate cake with a picture of her and Mr Harris meeting last June for him and his family.

“I think it’s important to bring up the cake just to show that I’m also a person, that there’s no anger there,” she said.

“I don’t look at him as a bad person, I don’t doubt his sincerity for a second and I know that he is a good person.”

She added that Mr Harris had a choice before him and that she has “a lot of hope for him”.

Opposition party leaders joined Miss Darmody at Leinster House to welcome her and support her campaign.

“My final words on this is the failure to provide assessment of needs within that time frame has real, long-lasting and in many cases devastating consequences for children.

“This is a serious, serious issue. This campaign has gone on for far too long. The numbers have now doubled. So the government needs to act, and there needs to be a positive response from Simon Harris today.”

Labour leader Ivana Bacik said: “We all stand behind you as you fight for a timely assessment of need for children”.

“I think all of us know across our constituencies the enormous pain, the enormous frustration and anguish that parents and families and children are going through because of delays in assessments of need and lack of services that are available for children.”

Social Democrat acting leader Cian O’Callaghan told Miss Darmody that she “shouldn’t have to campaign like this” and said the wait times were “completely unacceptable”.

“No child who is entitled to services and assessment of need should have to go through this campaigning, and you’re doing that on behalf of thousands of thousands of children across the country,” he said.