Over 1,200 Louth children waiting for disability assessments

More than 1,200 children in Louth are currently waiting for an Assessment of Need, with 250 waiting over a year and another 350 waiting between six and twelve months. The delays, which are in excess of the statutory six-month timeframe set out under the Disability Act 2005, were sharply criticised in the Dáil this week by Louth TD Joanna Byrne, who described the backlog as “damning” and warned of the serious impact on children with disabilities and their families.

The Louth TD said: “The statutory timeframes are not being met in Louth due to limited staff resources and an unprecedented increase in the number of applications and the workload.” She added that the HSE has said it is currently not possible to guarantee statutory timeframes for when completions of assessments of need will be met that limited staff resources and an unprecedented increase in applications and workload had significantly impacted wait times and that it is out of the control of current assessment-of-need staff to meet statutory timeframes.

Deputy Byrne claimed  that the system is buckling because of years of inadequate planning and staffing.

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“The Government cannot get its act together on a 20-year-old Act,” she said. “Waiting lists are getting longer year on year and are not decreasing, even with the Louth assessment-of-need team outsourcing the vast majority of assessments.”

She continued: “Staff are overloaded with work, parents are up the walls with stress… and behind each and every one of these damning statistics is another child with disabilities suffering further permanent damage as a result of the Government continuing to break its own laws. The response of the Government to this and every other issue seems to be to say it is spending more on the problem, but it is obviously not investing wisely given that waiting lists are getting longer year on year.”