Parents of children with special needs protest in Cavan town
Local parents say their children need timely access to assessments, therapies and suitable school places
PARENTS and carers of children with additional needs in Co Cavan staged a protest outside HSE offices in Cavan town today (Tuesday).
The protestors have six demands including access to services like speech and language therapy and psychology, which requires their second demand - the full staffing of the Children's Disability Network Team (CDNT), to be met.
Enable Ireland who are the service provider in Cavan can point to significant improvements in the numbers of therapist roles filled in the county, but as of August 1 there was still a vacancy rate of 29%.
Parents also want clear timelines and transparency over waiting lists, the services available and their child's access to those services.
HSE and government accountability is important to families because as the parents' group say in their mission statement: "Our children deserve better and they also deserve answers".
The Anglo-Celt spoke to some of those at today's protest on Main Street. They said children who have been 'red flagged' for early intervention and support are being ignored and therefore missing important milestones in their development.
And, as new figures released from the HSE reveal, there are 16,593 children currrently waiting on the completion of their assessment of need (AON), the protesting families in Cavan are calling for "equality - not a postcode lottery".
"Every child in Ireland deserves equal access to support, no matter where they live," the group says. "Cavan children are being left behind."
The same HSE figures show that in the HSE Dublin and North East region, which includes most of County Cavan, there are currently 5,204 children overdue for AON completion. 4,386 of them are waiting over three months.
As the protestors displayed banners with slogans including “We deserve a change not a waiting list” and “No child left behind. For real this time” passers-by stopped to offer words of support while cars and vans beeped their horns and saluted the protesting carers.
Read the full story in this week's edition of the Anglo-Celt in shops Wednesday.