AT TEN O’CLOCK this morning, teenage campaigner Cara Darmody began a 50-hour protest outside the Dáil over the Government’s failure to deliver assessments of needs on time. 

Virtually all members of Dáil Éireann have expressed their support for the teenager, with Opposition leaders joining her this morning to offer support and well wishes. 

You may be wondering who Cara is, and what exactly is the issue with assessments of needs? 

Here’s everything you need to know. 

First of all, what is an assessment of needs? 

An assessment of needs is a formal procedure, set out under the Disability Act 2005, that identifies a child’s health and educational needs.

The HSE is legally obliged to carry out a full assessment within six months of receiving an application. This should then be followed up with any additional services required, such as therapies or special education.

Not all children with additional needs require one of these assessments, and these assessments are not an absolute requirement to access services. However, in practice, assessments of need are a key stepping stone to access to the system for many children.

And what is the problem at the moment?

Right now, there is a huge backlog of children waiting to receive their assessments of need.

Figures made public this week from the HSE showed that over 15,000 children are currently waiting for an assessment and worryingly, it says that this could rise to over 25,000 children by the end of this year.

The Dáil has heard today of children who have been waiting as long as seven years for an assessment.

The most recent HSE figures also show that just 7% of children are receiving their assessment within the statutory six-month timeline. 

Cara Darmody and her family are calling for the Government to declare this a national emergency for children, arguing that by doing so, it would activate an emergency response from the Government.

Who is Cara Darmody? 

Cara is a 14-year-old girl from Tipperary who became a disability rights campaigner of national prominence when she was just 12 years old. 

Alongside her father Mark, Cara is a vocal campaigner, raising awareness through multiple campaigns, speaking at events and meeting some of Ireland’s most senior politicians. 

She has spoken about how her motivation stems from the experiences of her brothers, Neil (12) and John (8), who have autism and intellectual disabilities. 

Cara’s father, Mark, told The Journal in 2022 that his family’s experience of attempting to access services for the boys has been “horrific, humiliating and inhumane”.

As a result of Cara’s campaigning last year, an additional €10m of funding was allocated in the Budget. This funding was described as “Cara’s fund” by then-Taoiseach Simon Harris. 

By staging her 50-hour protest outside the Dáil this week, Cara wants to highlight that the Government is currently breaking the law when it comes to delivering assessments of needs. 

What are the Government doing about it? 

This issue has been bubbling to the top of the political agenda for some time now, with disability issues coming to the fore in last year’s general election, but it was Cara’s protest today has really made the Government sit up and listen.

Responsibility for this falls under the remit of Minister for Children and Disability Norma Foley. 

She outlined in a press conference today how the Government is working to streamline and abridge the assessment process, telling reporters that the current system is “broken”.

The minister also said that there will be a recruitment drive for psychologists.

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Asked by The Journal if funding would be provided in the short term to assist with the existing system, Foley said the Government’s focus is on slowing down the increases to the waiting list first.

So what might change? 

The need to ‘abridge’ the assessment process (essentially cut down the length of hours required to do an assessment) is something the Government has been pushing for, with Taoiseach Micheál Martin explaining in the Dáil today that this would require a change to the existing legislation. 

This is because of a High Court ruling in 2022, which ruled that assessments were not comprehensive enough and needed to take over 30 hours per assessment. 

This ruling was accepted by the HSE at the time, and the model of assessments was changed.

This had a knock-on impact on resources and waiting lists began to grow.

This is the argument the Taoiseach has been making for amending the legislation.

Speaking in the Dáil today, the Taoiseach acknowledged that the situation is so bad that the HSE is “not in a position to fulfil the law right now” when it comes to meeting the statutory six-month timeline.

Opposition parties argue, however, that to amend the legislation would be a retrograde step and that children should still have access to the more comprehensive version of assessments that have been in place since the High Court ruling.

It is not yet clear in what way the Government plans to amend the legislation.

With reporting from Muiris Ó Cearbhail