Disability rights campaigner Cara Darmody has today issued an urgent public appeal to European Parliament President Roberta Metsola, requesting a face-to-face meeting to expose the systemic failure of disability assessments for children in Ireland.
The formal request is being facilitated and advanced directly through Sinn Féin MEP Kathleen Funchion, who has actively championed Darmody’s campaign within the European Parliament, taking Cara to address an EU Conference as recently as the 30th June last. Kathleen’s intervention comes as Darmody intensifies her political pressure over the state’s ongoing failure to provide statutory developmental assessments to thousands of children, having just completed another 50-hour campaign at Leinster House on the 16th July.
The request comes at a critical time as Ireland holds the Presidency of the Council of the European Union. Darmody argues that the state’s failure to provide timely statutory Assessments of Need violates fundamental human rights and equality standards protected under European Union values.
Cara has also formally requested to urgently meet Tánaiste and Finance Minister Simon Harris again, who previously created ‘Cara’s Fund’ in her honour – a fund which has received over €30million of Government funding to date to deal with the Assessments of Needs crisis.
The teenage activist has listed the following issues for urgent discussion:
“Children with special needs in Ireland are being abandoned by the State system,” said Cara Darmody. “Waiting years for an Assessment of Need destroys a child’s early intervention window. As Europe looks to Ireland during our EU Presidency, EU leaders must know the human cost of these administrative failures happening on our soil.”
“I’ve long believed that because the national recruitment of psychologists & therapists is problematic, that we can’t simply accept there is no short-term solution. We also can’t leave children on waiting lists for years & years, so now I believe is the perfect time for the Government to consider a properly funded international recruitment campaign, and for a European solution to be considered for this national crisis that now has 22,000 children waiting to be assessed.”
“I’ve had huge & unprecedented success in my campaign so far by convincing the Government to create ‘Cara’s Fund’ and then place over €30million of funding into it. But now we need to see real targeted measures that will finally bring the Government closer to the day when they can finally stop breaking the Assessments of Needs law.”
“Because that’s something we cannot ignore – the Government is breaking the law every day of the week by failing to assess autistic children within the legal 6 month window, with the average waiting time now at over two years. They must move Heaven & Earth to stop breaking the law.”
Darmody is calling on President Metsola to acknowledge the request and grant a delegation hearing to discuss how European policy pressure can compel national governments to clear backlogs and enforce statutory timelines.