Disability activist Cara Darmody (14) has accused the Government of being “all talk but no action” after meeting Taoiseach Micheál Martin on Wednesday morning.
The secondary school pupil from Co Tipperary started a 50-hour picket outside Leinster House on Tuesday, calling on the Government to address the large number of children awaiting an assessment for a disability or autism for six months or longer.
More than 15,000 children are waiting for an assessment of need, but the HSE estimates the number will grow to 25,000 by the end of this year.
Just over 24 hours into her protest, Cara said the Government has not committed to any of the main asks of her campaign, which include its declaration of the assessment of need backlog as a national emergency for children.
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“It’s the same as usual. He [Mr Martin] didn’t really agree to follow on with any of the asks. He’s a lovely guy and I don’t doubt his sincerity but it went exactly how I expected it to go. All talk but very little action.
“I don’t think that things have changed and I don’t think that things are going to change anytime soon. I’m going to keep trying my best to get change.”
Despite feeling there has been little progress, Cara said she is confident that she “can win this issue, especially with the Opposition backing me up last night”.
On Tuesday evening the Dáil debated a motion put down by Sinn Féin demanding that the Government takes emergency action.
[ Government to change law in bid to speed up autism and disability assessmentsOpens in new window ]
Speaking during the debate, Mr Martin said the issue was not one of resources but one of capacity: “I think we have to facilitate more recruitment of therapists from overseas, and I think the regulatory body needs to be flexible in that regard.”
“I am in the process of establishing the first ever disability unit within the Department of Taoiseach to troubleshoot and to co-ordinate across all Government departments the provision of services for people with disabilities,” he said. “The need is increasing all of the time.”
Cara’s father, Mark Darmody, was with her for the meeting with Mr Martin at 9am on Wednesday.
“We’ve had lots of these meetings before,” said Mr Darmody. “He had lots of plans, he listened to us, he took on board an awful lot of stuff including setting up a taskforce and all that. But we just didn’t leave feeling that he was going to do something urgent.”
Referencing Mr Martin’s comments on recruitment, Mr Darmody said: “He has great plans to recruit and all this stuff but it’s going to take years to do that. If that happens, children are destined to remain rotting on waiting lists. You might love to know what number before they would declare it a national crisis.
“Unfortunately for him, the numbers are only going one way, so if those numbers hit 25,000 at Christmas I think he’s in big trouble.”
Asked how the first half of her 50-hour protest has felt, Cara said: “It has been a long 24 hours.
“I only got around six hours of sleep last night, and that’s really bad because I get 10 hours of sleep every night. My dad didn’t get any sleep, he was shaking this morning. I‘m just over half way through but I’m determined to keep fighting.”
