A teenage boy with a moderate learning disability has secured leave from the High Court to seek orders requiring the State and HSE to provide him with adequate appropriate physical, speech and language therapies.
John Hanlon, for the teenager, told Mr Justice Michael Peart yesterday that the boy, now aged 16, has a moderate learning disability and is attending a special school.
However, recommended therapeutic supports had not been provided for him and experts had warned time was running out.
His mother has been seeking provision of the therapy since 2003, counsel added.
In an affidavit, the mother said a psycho-educational report on her son recommended speech and language therapy, occupational therapy and physiotherapy, had highlighted the lack of these as "a matter of neglect" and had warned "time is running out" for her son.
The HSE had told her in August 2004 that it did not have the resources to pay for private therapies for her son. There had been conflicting views whether his school had been approved funding for therapies.
Last November, following a Dáil question to the Minister for Health and Children relating to speech and language therapy provision for special needs children in Co Kildare, it was stated that limited staffing resources has had a significant adverse effect on the capacity to deliver timely comprehensive services.
Mr Justice Peart granted leave to the boy, suing through his mother, to bring judicial review proceedings aimed at securing orders requiring the Ministers for Education and Science, Health and Children and the HSE to provide the therapies sought.