I thank the Deputy for his question. The Government and I recognise the need for all children to receive the right services at the right time. We are committed to improving services for all children with disabilities. We have and will continue to do so. As the Deputy will know, there are currently 93 children's disability network teams, CDNTs, across the country and these teams provide services and supports for children from birth to 18 years of age. Children with neurological conditions receive supports through these teams as well as through other community services. Almost 45,000 children and their families are being supported by children’s disability network teams and in respect of the number of children waiting to access the CDNTs, it has been decreasing by 15% in the first half of this year. HSE data from April 2025 shows there has been a nationwide increase of 26% in CDNT staffing levels since October 2023. Most significantly, the CDNT national vacancy rate has reduced from 29% in 2023 to 18% this year, a reduction of 11 percentage points, and we will continue to improve that. The model of service for all CDNTs is family-centred and based on the needs of the child. It is centred on the objectives of empowering and supporting parents and others who are with the child on a daily basis to facilitate the child’s developmental needs. The programme for Government includes a commitment to advancing neurorehabilitation services nationally, including the completion of the national roll-out of HSE community neurorehabilitation teams. To date, the Government has provided funding for community neurorehabilitation teams in four regional health areas around HSE Galway, Roscommon and Mayo; HSE south west; HSE Dublin, South and Wicklow; HSE Dublin south west, south city and west; and Kildare west Wicklow. The Deputy's issue was in relation to children in particular and we will be increasing focus on children’s neurorehabilitation going forward. The HSE is progressing plans to examine the demand for paediatric neurorehabilitation services for children in Ireland. I will come back in afterwards.

Sentiment score: 0.25

As I was saying, we will be increasing our focus on children's neurorehabilitation. The HSE is progressing plans to examine the demand for those rehabilitation services for children in Ireland with acquired disability and to examine the current capacity of rehabilitation services, as well as designing a service delivery model for children with acquired disability in line with national strategies for children with disabilities. Consideration of the children’s disability services and the funding requirements for budget 2026 is ongoing. The Department has been actively engaging with the Department of public expenditure and reform and digitalisation and with the HSE throughout this process. As the budget has not yet been announced, confirmation regarding funding in specific regions cannot yet be provided. Following confirmation of 2026 funding, the HSE will publish its 2026 national service plan, which will set out the expected activity for 2026.

Sentiment score: 0.12

I thank the Deputy for his contribution. It is important. He is correct that we should address those gaps. As I travelled the country I have met those who look after people who acquire a brain injury - mostly adults - but issues around that gap between the ages of 16 and 18 are issues that have been raised with me. I appreciate the Deputy raising the issue here and it is something we will have to look at to make sure we are rolling out these hubs as is happening for adults across the country but also looking at gaps in the service.

Sentiment score: 0.14

The Government and I recognise the importance of early intervention for children with disabilities and of ensuring they receive the right service at the right time. Under the programme for Government we are committed to ensuring that children and their families who need early intervention and therapy input can access that support in a timely way. The key vehicle for change and improvement is the roadmap for service improvement for disability services for children and young people. The implementation of this roadmap is well under way and will continue until 2026. The roadmap contains an important set of actions that collectively will enhance children's disability services in Ireland. They include significant measures to integrate and improve access to services, to expand the workforce and to advance better communication and engagement with families. A key part of this work has been the improvement of access to services through the CDNTs. These are providing supports and services to almost 45,000 children. I fully acknowledge that there is still a lot more to do to address the current delays faced by children with disabilities who are seeking services. The latest data received from the HSE for the second quarter of 2025 show that there are currently 41 applications waiting one to three months, while there are 334 applications waiting longer than three months in the Cavan-Monaghan area, CHO 1. Recruitment and retention of health and social care professionals, HSCPs, is the most significant challenge. Work is ongoing to increase staffing levels. The HSE data from April of this year shows there has been a nationwide increase of 26% in CDNT staffing levels since October 2023. Most significantly, the CDNT national vacancy rate has reduced from 29% in 2023 to 18% in 2025. This is a reduction of 11 percentage points.

Sentiment score: 0.37

That is the breakdown I received but I will go back and see if there is a further breakdown. The Deputy's question was specific but those were the figures I got back. I will come back to the Deputy if there is a further breakdown. My Department and I know that more needs to be done in this area. My Department is working with the HSE to introduce specific recruitment and retention measures and incentives for therapists to work in our CDNTs, including the CDNT sponsorship initiative and facilitating direct access for funded agencies to existing professional panels. In 2025, we allocated €10 million in additional funding to be made available specifically for children's services, and that funding focused on recruiting for various positions right across our CDNTs. That included 20 senior therapist posts, 20 staff-grade posts, 20 health and social care assistants posts and 15 clinical trainee posts. Measures have also been provided to assist with sustainability. That is to address the assessment of need backlog while freeing up resources for therapists to actually carry out the therapeutic supports.

Sentiment score: 0.21

I will come back and follow up in writing on that. The Deputy makes a good point as well. I always stress when travelling around the country and visiting services that there is a lot of fantastic work happening within the disability sector. Sometimes those working within the sector talk to me about the narrative out there. We all understand the challenges that have to be dealt with and there are families out there who are waiting too long on these waiting lists for their children to access these services. As part of this, we need to be recruiting and retaining more, which we will be doing, and that will also hopefully build the morale of these fantastic teams on the ground who are dealing with very challenging situations in trying to get through these waiting lists. We are also looking at our third level system. We had 150 extra therapists going through our third level system last year, going into first year. There will be more placements this year, developing the future pipeline. We are also looking at the national CDNT training programme. We have the expedited CORU registration process, which is for bringing therapists in from abroad, making sure we are doing absolutely everything we can to recruit qualified therapists in this area. We also have bespoke initiatives designed to provide specialist supports for children with complex needs and their families.

Sentiment score: 0.20

The Government and I recognise the importance of early intervention, and the programme for Government, as the Deputy knows, commits to ensuring children and their families get that early intervention and therapy input, and that they can access that support in a timely way. A key response to this issue is the recruitment and retention of health and social care professionals, and I alluded to that in my last response. Substantial effort and investment has been made in this regard. Our CDNTs support almost 45,000 children with complex needs. HSE data from April of this year shows there has been an increase of 26% in CDNT staffing levels since October 2023 and the vacancy rate has reduced from 29% in 2023 to 18% in 2025, an 11% reduction. I acknowledge that some families, as the Deputy said, are still facing unacceptable delays. Access to therapies for a child should not depend on whether their family can afford it. Rather than diverting funding to reimburse individuals for private therapy, we should utilise public funding to invest in our public system and to enhance the capacity to deliver these therapies free of charge. This is an issue of equity and it also speaks to our focus on building a sustainable service for children with disabilities. Notwithstanding this, individual health regions may procure private providers to provide therapies and interventions on a case-by-case basis. However, this is usually only in exceptional circumstances. This is about improving the pipeline of required therapies and a continued focus on recruitment and retention. We also need to develop that pipeline of future therapists through our third level education system, which we are doing. In June, the Government approved an expansion in training places from September 2025 in disciplines critical to disability, health and education services. Additionally, alternative pathways into health and social care professions are being developed to widen access to critical skills areas. That includes apprenticeships, tertiary programmes, graduate conversion and mature entry.

Sentiment score: 0.21

I do not have the figures for that but I can tell the Deputy that the focus of Government, and my focus and that of the Minister, Deputy Foley, is to make sure we are increasing the number of speech and language therapists and occupational therapists so that they are actually going out there providing the therapies. As the Deputy knows with regard to the backlog of assessment of need, a lot of them are carrying out the assessments. What many people want and what parents send their children to get these assessments for is to get access to the therapies, which is a huge part of this. That is the drive we are working on through the legislation around the assessment of need process to make it more efficient and effective, and to meet the needs of our children who really need these services. That is our sole focus. Yes, we provided €10 million to try to address the assessment of need backlog, for example, and we will continue to work our way through that. People do have a right to an assessment of need but we need to make sure that we are looking at our third level institutions, recruitment abroad and speeding up the registration process for those coming back from abroad through CORU but also looking at bursaries. If the Deputy has other suggestions, my door is open with regard to recruitment and retention of these therapists.

Sentiment score: 0.31

I thank the Deputy, and I will come back to him if I have those figures available to me. He raised an important point around early intervention. I refer to the earliest milestones, and a child not reaching them. What is happening now is a lot of these pressures are coming into the education system. Where a need is identified we need to be flagging it much earlier and providing the services much earlier. That is where that single point of access to the HSE will be so important as well as us dealing with the assessment of need process, recruiting and retaining our therapists at home and abroad but also getting that earlier intervention through the primary care setting, for example. Just one area is not going to resolve this. This is a whole-of-government approach but the HSE, the Department of Education and Youth and my Department will also ensure we are reaching those at an earlier level and allowing CDNTs to deal with those with the most complex needs.

Sentiment score: 0.16