Long waiting list for child therapies is forcing families into food poverty, says Ward

Familes have been forced to access foodbanks due to the cost of private life-changing therapies for their children, a Sinn Fein TD has said.

Dublin Mid-West TD Mark Ward says that due to the length of public waiting lists for physical and mental therapies, families have been forced to pay for expensive private treatments, leaving them with no choice but to access their local foodbank.

Deputy Ward says that the problem has gotten worse in recent years.

“ The Clondalkin Cares Foodbank from my own area of Dublin Mid West do fantastic work and in the past two years, they have engaged with over 3,000 people, half of whom were aged under 18,” he says.

“They currently support about 500 people on a regular basis with food supplies.

“There are many reasons why families are accessing food supports in my area including the increase in the cost of living and the changes in income since the pandemic.

“We heard from Karin Jonsson who runs the Clondalkin Cares foodbank at a recent Children’s committee meeting on child poverty that parents are accessing the local foodbank because they have had to pay for private life changing therapies for their children because the public waiting lists are so long.

“Some 17% of people cite that the reason that they have to access the foodbank to feed their families is increased health costs including having to pay for private for assessment of needs, speech and language therapy and psychology as the waiting lists are endless,” he says.

Ward says that there are currently 71,000 children on public waiting lists for treatments such as occupational therapy, speech and language therapy, dietetics and psychology.

“Some 19,000 children are waiting over a year on for an appointment,” he says.

“Successive Governments have failed these children and their families. It is a very damming inditement of us a society when parents are forced to decide between feeding their families or accessing life changing treatment for their children.

“Children have a right to be given every chance to reach their full potential and parents should not have to make a choice between feeding their family and health care for their children.”