Offaly children among the 525 currently awaiting Assessment of Need
13-03-2025
The number of children currently awaiting an Assessment of Need (AON) across the two Children’s Disability Networks (10 and 11) which cover the Offaly area is 525 according to a response received by Independent TD Carol Nolan. Network 11 covers also North Laois in addition to East Offaly.
The details were provided by the HSE following a parliamentary question from the Independent TD to the Minister for Children; Equality; Disability; Integration and Youth Norma Foley.
“It is hard to convey the level of panic that many parents are feeling with respect to their almost total inability to access timely and professional disability services for their children,” said Deputy Nolan.
“The numbers revealed to me today clearly signal that there are children in Offaly and right across the midlands for that matter, who are being lost in a system that is totally overwhelmed.”
“This is despite the heroic efforts of staff on the ground who are only too aware that the level of ‘care’ being provided ranges from the non-existent to the barely adequate.”
“Every week without fail my offices make urgent representations to the minister and indeed the HSE on these issues and every week a response comes back with an apology about prolonged waiting times.”
“This is a system in total crisis and the ones paying for that crisis are vulnerable children and their families.”
“It is almost cruelly ironic that the AON process is a key plank of the Progressing Disability Services Strategy, because if you ask most parents the one thing they see no sign of from one year to the next is progress. More often not they experience stagnation.”
“This situation has gone on for far too long. We all accept that reconfiguration of disability services takes time to embed at the local level, but at this point the verdict is in and that verdict clearly spells disaster and a model not fit for purpose.”
“I will continue to do everything I can to fight for the children of Offaly in order to ensure that, as broken as the system is, their voices are heard and not forgotten,” concluded Deputy Nolan.