IRELAND AM viewers have praised Tommy Bowe for giving a TD a "hard grilling" on air. 14-year-old Cara Darmody started her 50-hour demo outside Leinster House from 10am on Tuesday to push for urgent action on the growing waiting lists for child disability assessments. Currently there are more than 15,000 children waiting for an assessment of need, which is often a key requirement for children accessing certain services and supports. Under the law, children are legally entitled to an assessment of need within six months of applying. But shocking figures show just seven per cent of assessments were completed last year within the timeframes set out in the Disability Act 2005. Tommy and Muireann O'Connell spoke to Cara and her dad Mark who were still sat outside Leinster House on air yesterday morning before getting the Minister of State for Responsibility for Disability Hildegarde Naughton's opinion on the matter. Turning to the TD, Muireann said: "Minister, looking at Cara and her dad there, outside your place of work, to try to get people to talk about this…" Tommy added: "In her Winnie the Pooh pyjamas. It's sad." Naughton replied: "Good morning, Cara. Nobody should have to protest outside the gates of Leinster House." The politician explained that she wants to "make sure" the government are "getting through those waiting lists" as well as ensuring "children and adults across the country" have access to therapists and those with "disabilities" to access the services they need. During their chat, Tommy asked: "So at the end of 2023, it was 8,893 people looking for this. It then is at 15,000, we're expecting to be at 25,000. You're saying we want to reduce this. "It's going the wrong direction. How many people are currently employed as AON or clinical disability?" Naughton replied: "Within the sector of therapists, we have about 1,800 across the sector. This is what we need to look at as part of the assessment of need process. "At the moment, the average time an assessment of needs takes is on average 30 hours. It can take up to 90 hours. So we want to look at that whole process, how that works, through working with clinicians, the HSE, and my department is engaging with that at the moment. "If legislative reform is needed, we will absolutely consider that. But it's really important to say we will not deny anybody their statutory right to have an assessment of need. But this is not just about tackling the waiting list. We also need to look at the health system, where there is no wrong door for people." The former rugby star cut across the Fine Gael politician and called her out saying: "Sorry, sorry, you keep saying you need to look at these thing... the waiting list is growing. "How long is it going to take to look at these things and put them into place? Because this needs action now." 'WHAT ARE YOU DOING?' Naughton responded: "As I said, we're looking at the assessment of need process itself and how that can be changed. The draw on assessment of needs, where people are being asked for them, where they shouldn't be asked for them. We're looking at the retention and recruitment of therapists." Tommy clarified his question saying: "You keep saying looking at. What are you doing?" Muireann added: "Do you have a timeline for this?" She replied: "There is a Cabinet Committee for Disability that I sit on. The Tanaiste, Simon Harris sits on. Minister Foley, Minister for Health. Assessment of need is an absolute top priority. "We had a meeting only two weeks ago. Myself and Minister Foley are going to report back to the leaders within the next few weeks in relation to what we can do around the assessment of need. I want action on this. So we're going to be meeting very regularly, as we are." HEATED HOST After Naughton's lengthy reply about looking for therapists, she said: "But around timelines, so we're coming back to the leaders in the next few weeks, and by, I suppose, September, October, I want to act on this this year. "This is not going to be easy." Tommy remarked: "We're going to be over 20,000 at that stage!" The politician replied: "If it was a money problem, this would have been sorted." Tommy butted in and said: "Oh, we know that. We know the government has lots of money." 'VERY SIMPLE' During the heated conversation, Naughton admitted she knows it's a "huge issue" and that the government are "failing children" but reassured that she's "working day and night to tackle the issue". Mark Darmody and his daughter Cara was then shown again from their protest and Tommy asked: "You're going to be meeting the Taoiseach later on this morning. What would you like to say?" Mark replied: "The main thing is this. I have a simple question for him today, is he going to declare this a national emergency or not? Because it is. "It's a yes or no answer. It's very, very simple. Because we've heard all this talk before. 'WHATEVER' "We've heard it from three different Taoiseach before about what they're going to do and all the great plans. They failed dramatically. We want him to declare this a national emergency and then every agency then will have to act in a different way." Back in the studio, Muireann asked Naughton the very same question but her answer was not straight forward. She said: "I'm treating this with absolute… this is the top priority for government, not just me. And we can name it what we want, but what we need is action. And that's what was said in the Dáil last night.That's what I'm hearing right across the country." After being asked the same question over and over again, Naughton refused to answer yes or no and just reiterated that "you can call it what you want". 'FAIR PLAY' Tommy remarked: "Okay. So Mark has asked just… that's his one question. 'You can call it what you like'. You're obviously not saying that this morning. We will see if the Taoiseach does that." A short segment of the interview was posted on Ireland AM's Instagram page and everyone flooded the comment section with praise. One viewer wrote: "Good man Tommy, you put her in her place!!" Kyle said: "It’s funny that it’s the morning TV show that gives politicians a harder grilling than the nighttime current affairs panel discussions. Fair play lads." Lynn commented: "Fair play Tommy!" Another fan added: "Tommy, well done for how you handled this."