Frustrating delays facing special kids
Concern: Deirdre Carroll of Inclusion Ireland has commented on the assessment delays.
Monday April 11 2011
Currently, all children with special needs under five years of age are entitled by law to have an independent examination carried out to determine what health or education services they should be provided with.
It may mean they are found to need services such as special education to deal with learning difficulties or speech and language therapy.
However, the HSE revealed that the number of applications overdue for completion at the end of January increased by 33, bringing the number up to 898.
The worst affected area was the Dublin/mid-Leinster region, where 70pc of the children on the list live.
By the end of February, 110 of these 898 assessments within Dublin/mid-Leinster had been addressed.
