Ministers urged to improve assessment wait times

Local children are waiting up to three years for appointments for assessment with Enable Ireland.

Cllr TP O’Reilly (FG) called on the relevant ministers to work to improve the situation when he raised the issue at the May meeting of Cavan County Council.

His motion sought a review of Enable Ireland and the waiting times for referrals of children.

“I think the waiting times for children looking for referrals can be anything up to three years. It’s unacceptable at the minute.

“We need to send a couple of questions to either the Minister for Children Roderic O’Gorman or the Health Minister Stephen Donnelly to see what they can do to try and expedite the referral times.”

He is concerned that children “have slipped through the net and haven’t even been looked at by a public health nurse and it’s only when they start school they realise these children might need a referral”.

Seconding the motion, Cllr Shane P O’Reilly (IND) said the service is “at crisis point”, with “major stress and strain”.

“There is a major backlog in Enable Ireland. It’s left to parents to go out and spend money privately which they don’t have.”

He said there are “major issues” with children beginning national school without having received any diagnosis.

Aontú Cllr Sarah O’Reilly said the situation had “disimproved drastically” since she had raised the issue last October.