Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 10 December 2020
94. Deputy Sorca Clarke asked the Minister for Health if his attention has been drawn to the plight of parents of children with Down’s syndrome who have been without services since March 2020; if his Department will allocate additional resources to deal with the backlog; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40784/20]
View answerBoth the Government and I, as Minister of State for Disabilities recognise the critical need and importance of supports for all children with disabilities and their families. The impact of Covid-19 on people’s lives has and still continues to be very significant.
Some services continued during the pandemic with staff including Speech and Language Therapists working with children with disabilities and their families remotely and using technology in new and effective ways. I will acknowledge that this may not have been suitable for some children as the Deputy brought to my attention during last week’s Topical Issue on services in Longford and Westmeath.
Having had discussions with the HSE, I can assure the Deputy that our collective aim is to fully restore services and this must be in a safe way and to pre- Covid-19 levels as soon as possible. The HSE has recently commenced a recruitment campaign for staff to support contact tracing and community testing facilities for Covid-19. The recruitment of Community Contact Tracers and Swabbing staff will allow the return of Occupational Therapists, Speech and Language therapists and other clinical staff who had been redeployed to these duties to their substantive roles as soon as possible.
With regard to the allocation of additional resources, I was pleased to have secured an additional €100 million in Budget 2021, including funding for additional therapy posts for children’s disability teams. Substantial funding of €7.8m was also recently provided to clear the AON backlog.
