Families shouldn’t have to keep fighting for their children to get necessary care

Deputy Pádraig Mac Lochlainn and Deputy Pearse Doherty spoke to the government last night as part of Sinn Féín’s motion on Funding for Persons with Disabilities. 

Both TDs were speaking following a meeting on Monday with senior HSE managers and the Donegal Special Needs Parents Network which represents over 600 families in the county to discuss the crisis in the Children’s Disability Network Teams.

Deputy Doherty outlines the repercussions the lack of resources and vacancies has on the individuals affected.

“In Donegal, we have a major crisis. Right across the CDNT network, there are vacancies. In East Donegal, there is only one SLT and no occupational therapist or physical therapist,” Teachta Doherty said.

“I listened to families this week who told us that their daughter, who is 8 years old. They fought so hard for their baby to be present in the world. She had open heart surgery at 16 weeks old. Now, her intervention team is practically non-existent. They say they got no help from the HSE at all in terms of weaning her off her feeding tube.

“Another parent has a child with epilepsy and very complex disabilities. They are peg-fed, non-verbal and are a candidate for scoliosis. They have 80% curvature of the spine but are unlikely to get help because they have no support in local areas. Their last speech and language appointment was in November 2022 and the last physiotherapy was in May 2023.

“Your budget ensured that children like that will continue to suffer. It is not acceptable, we need to end the fact that these parents are battling against the system, battling against the government, and let’s do the right thing by ensuring that proper funding is there for these services.”

Following on, Deputy Pádraig Mac Lochlainn addressed concerns surrounding the Children’s Disability Network Team and called for an urgent intervention to support parents.

“The Children’s Disability Network Team are in collapse. In North Donegal, in the two areas, you have about a 57% vacancy rate. It’s an absolute disaster. That has real implications. The presentations by parents of children with disabilities yesterday were absolutely harrowing,” Teachta Mac Lochlainn has said.

"There are a couple of issues I want to put to you today: Can there be an emergency fund for parents who, in the absence of an Occupational Therapist, a speech and language therapist, a psychologist, a social worker etc., can go to the private sector? Can you redeploy from the primary care sector, can that be done?

“These are a number of urgent interventions that require national guidance to the HSE. We cannot tolerate a situation where the system forces families to fight. These are families that are trying to support their children. Trying to be there for their children. They’re tired, they’re weary. They don’t want to be fighting. 

“Minister, please intervene and see what can be done at the highest level to sort out the problems in Donegal.”