A senior High Court judge has welcomed the efforts that are being made to deal with the "dramatic" recent increase in actions against the HSE over the assessment of children with special needs coming before the court.
On Wednesday Mr Justice Charles Meenan was told by lawyers representing both the HSE and those representing 20 families taking the cases, that attempts are being made to resolve the issue that had been raised by the court.
David Leahy SC for the HSE told the court that his client had been making efforts to deal with the backlog of cases.
Counsel said that there was "no shortage of funding available" for the assessment of the children's needs.
Staffing issue
Counsel said that unfortunately there was an issue with the recruitment of staff and there are currently 695 vacancies for assessors. Counsel added it is hoped that this situation will improve in the coming weeks, when the HSE recommences reporting staff shortages in this area directly to the Minister for Health.
Direct reporting on this issue to the Minister had not been taking place for some years, the court heard.
Counsel said that other difficulties that had led to the increase had to do with a backlog in the system that had been created when the process of a preliminary assessments were deemed invalid by the High Court.
Counsel said that it is hoped that this backlog will be cleared soon.
Another issue that has arisen in some of the cases, counsel said was that the HSE has no control over assessment of educational needs.
These assessments are carried out by the National Council for Special Education, an autonomous body that comes under the remit of the Minister for Education, the court heard.
Increasing numbers
Mr Justice Meenan, who is the judge in charge of the busy High Court judicial review list, said that normally two to three new such cases come before the court per week.
However, he said that since October he said there had been "a dramatic increase" with an average of seven to eight new applications per week, where permission has been sought from the court by parties seeking to bring judicial review challenges against the HSE over the assessment of needs.
The judge said that he is concerned that the message that could emerge from this increase in these types of cases was the only way that these services can be accessed is if parents bring High Court judicial review proceedings.
Another concern the Judge arising out of the increase is that parents of children who do not opt to come to court could end up being "left behind".
None of the parties involved in the actions, can be named for legal reasons.
