I thank everybody for their contribution here this evening on this really important issue. It is something all of us are familiar with because we all work with families, individuals and children across the country who are affected by this. We all know vulnerable people, including children, who are clearly in need of State support and who unfortunately are left wanting. That is simply not acceptable. Families are stressed out, they are frustrated, they feel abandoned, and that is not fair. No one should be made feel like they need to go public or to protest to draw attention to this issue. Like the Minister, Deputy Foley, I recently met Cara Darmody and I was struck by her courage and commitment. Cara really is a remarkable teenage girl, and she is right. People with disabilities have in many cases been poorly served by the State. The motion presented this evening highlights some of the aspects of what is a complex issue, the fact that there are unacceptable delays in the delivery of assessments of need, and the need to increase the availability of and access to appropriate services for children with disabilities. As a Government, we have been taking steps to address these complex challenges, but I acknowledge that further work needs to be done, and it needs to be done as a matter of urgency. The assessment of need list sets out the challenge very starkly. We had over 18,000 applications overdue for completion nationwide at the end of September. This figure is expected to grow to over 22,000 in the coming weeks. Over 10,600 new applications were received last year, with some 4,100 completed assessments in 2024. Demand for assessments of need has doubled in five years and demand is clearly outstripping the capacity of the system that is there to try to meet it. The introduction of the targeted waiting list by the Government is helping. Over 6,300 clinical assessments have now been commissioned from private providers in the past 18 months, and in the next 12 months, 6,000 more will be delivered through this initiative. I am also encouraged by the 30% increase in assessments completed last year in comparison to the year previous and the 57% increase in completed assessments in the first nine months of this year compared to last year. The figures show that we are moving in the right direction, but we need to do more, and we need to do it faster. The introduction of the targeted legislative reforms announced today to Part 2 of the Disability Act will be key in allowing us to improve the efficiency and the effectiveness of the assessment of need process. Crucially, these reforms will not affect anyone's statutory right to an assessment of need or change the timeframes set out in the Act. Beginning next year, the Department will be undertaking a wider review of the Disability Act, and in line with the programme for Government commitment, the review will be carried out in consultation with impacted stakeholders. While my Department will progress these legislative reforms as a matter of priority, I cannot understate the importance of ensuring that operational reform within our public system occurs in conjunction with any amendments to the Disability Act. The Minister, Deputy Foley, has outlined that there will be additional resources provided this coming year to support the delivery of assessments of need. These will include training as well as additional clinical and administrative supports to assist assessment and liaison officers during the process and I am of the belief that not only will these wraparound supports lead to a more efficient process in the medium term, but they will also lead to a therapist spending less time on assessments and more time on delivering therapies to children. I am only three weeks in this role, but I already know from speaking with parents that the system is not working as it should for their children. We have thousands of children on long waiting lists for services. Indeed, some children have been there for years, and some may be on multiple waiting lists. That is why we are implementing this reform. This Government remains intent on pursuing significant investment and reform at pace in the coming months as part of a programme of sustained transformation across disability services. One of the key vehicles for this radical reform is the recently published National Human Rights Strategy for Disabled People 2025-2030. Pillar 4 of this strategy is about improving access to inclusive, integrated health services from early intervention to mental health supports and health promotion. This pillar includes a clear commitment to address capacity challenges across all children's therapy services in children's disability network teams, in primary care and mental health services for children and young people in schools. As the Minister outlined, a significant challenge we face in ensuring that children with disabilities receive the therapy they need is the recruitment and retention of therapists across the health system, and many Members have commented on that. While progress has been made through recruitment and retention initiatives, which we have seen in the increase in the number of CDNT staff, significant work still needs to be completed across the health sector to ensure that we have adequate staffing capacity to deliver therapies for children that need them. This progress needs to be achieved in the context of significant challenges internationally in the recruitment of staff into the wider health and social care sector. In order to increase the pipeline of therapists and to support sustained growth in our CDNTs and the wider disability service, the Government has approved an expansion in the number of training places for health and social care professionals over the coming years. Expansion will provide over 460 new places by 2028, including 310 this year and over 130 next year. In conjunction with this, the HSE also continues to drive intensive domestic and international recruitment efforts to obtain additional therapists to deliver these essential therapies. The HSE continues to work with overseas agencies on an ongoing basis to expand international recruitment. Within this, there is a particular focus on Irish trained overseas applicants, with a relocation package available to meet vouched expenses of a health and social care professional who has travelled overseas. I am confident that continued efforts by the HSE will allow us to build on some of the success we have seen so far in our CDNT staffing across the broader healthcare sector and that this will support the delivery of crucial therapy services at an earlier stage. The Minister highlighted that it is not simply a case of recruiting staff to improve access to therapies; we need to resolve a series of wider systemic issues. This will require intensive collaboration with our colleagues in the Department of Education and Youth, as well as the Department of Health, over the coming months. The implementation by the HSE next year of the single point of access model, which was referenced by many Members, will ensure that children will be directed to the appropriate service, whether primary care, CAMHS or CDNTs, and the introduction of our new in-reach teams will support their work. The HSE expects to have its new autism assessment and interventions pathway protocol ready in February and to be able to start delivering a new and consistent approach to autism assessments across the entire public health system. These initiatives have been achieved through the work of the HSE and by Departments working closely with each other. More importantly, they work in collaboration with our key stakeholders, taking into account the lived experiences of people and children with disabilities and their families. I look forward to engaging further with colleagues and stakeholders across government on this issue in the coming months. There is no doubt that addressing the problems with the assessment-of-need process and access to therapies is a challenge. It is a complex and challenging piece of work and requires a well thought-out and comprehensive plan to ensure that all aspects of the system are examined and, where necessary, fixed or improved. I am absolutely clear, as is the Minister, that delivering appropriate assessments of need to children and delivering quicker access to therapies and earlier intervention to children with disabilities are absolute priorities, not just for me and the Minister but for all members of the Government. That is why we are taking a whole-of-government approach to this.

Sentiment score: 0.26