I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue. The Government and I, like the Deputy, are committed to early intervention for children with disabilities, to ensure they can access the appropriate supports at the earliest possible stage. Those services are delivered through our children’s disability network teams for children with complex needs. Recruitment and retention of health and social care professionals is a really big challenge, to be quite frank, and it is a challenge faced by the CDNTs across the country. I am pleased that progress is being made on the recruitment of staff to the teams and the HSE has reported a 28% increase in staffing levels nationwide from October 2023 to October 2025. This equates to an additional 448 whole-time equivalents, which includes 321 health and social care professionals. The overall CDNT vacancy rate has reduced from 29% in 2023 to 18% in 2025. That is a reduction of 11 percentage points nationally, but it is still a challenge and, as a result of that, there are still delays in accessing interventions for children with disabilities. However, it is important to thank our teams and recruiters for the progress that is being made. Since the roadmap was approved by the Government in July 2023, the national CDNT waiting list has reduced by 43% as at the end of December. Despite staffing challenges, CDNTs provided supports to 44,739 children with complex needs as of the end of December last year. I thank all of our people who are working so hard on those teams. The HSE is currently developing a service improvement plan for disability service for children and young people, which will build on improvement works started under the roadmap with a key focus on recruitment and retention. To maintain this progress, the HSE is driving intensive domestic and international recruitment efforts and will undertake a variety of workforce initiatives to support sustained growth of CDNTs and the wider disability sector this year
Sentiment score: 0.47
In terms of staffing, this year's budget has allocated €8 million, which will provide for 150 new staff across our CDNTs. We will prioritise the placement of those new staff on the teams that have the highest vacancy rates. That is to make sure that we are providing more therapies to children who need them and who are waiting longer on lists. It is also to make sure that we are supporting the staff who are working with those CDNTs, which we need to do. In regard to Deputy Clendennen and his constituents who have gotten assessments and then gone to their CDNTs, to be really clear, families do not need an assessment to go to their CDNT. They just need to be referred. Families can self-refer or they can get a referral through their school, public health nurse or whatever it may be. It is really important that people are referred as early as possible. In Deputy Clendennen's own area, I know there are there CDNTs in Laois-Offaly. At the end of last year, there were 2,077 children who were open caseloads on the CDNTs. That means they have been in contact with CDNTs and there are 89 children on the waiting list.
Sentiment score: 0.15
There are 45,000 children receiving support and therapies through our CDNTs nationally and that is really positive. We are embarking on a recruitment campaign to make sure we are bolstering our teams. Part of that will be international and national recruitment but it will also be making sure, for example, that we are expanding training places, which happened in June of last year. There will be up to 461 additional student places by the end of 2028 and the majority of those have commenced. New roles and training pathways are being developed to expand the skills mix and the pipeline of people we can hire. We have student bursaries and trainee programmes. We found them really successful in regard to people coming to do their student placements with CDNTs and, on graduation, being offered roles on those teams. We want to see more of that, and I thank all of our students who have taken up roles.
Sentiment score: 0.36
The delivery of an effective, efficient assessment of need system is a priority for the Government, which is why we are bringing in reforms in this area. There has been intensive work by the Department and the HSE to address delays in the provision of assessments of need to children and their families. Children do not require an assessment of need to access health services, including primary care, children’s disability network teams or mental health services. It is important that people are aware of this. However, demand for assessments of need has increased significantly in recent years, reflecting both the increase in population and families exploring all options to access services for their child. The number of applications for assessments of need increased from 4,700 in 2020 to over 13,000 in 2025. Unfortunately, this demand is outpacing the capacity of the system to respond. As a result, HSE data shows that the number of applications over the completion date rose to over 20,200 nationally by the end of the year. This is unacceptable, which we acknowledge, and we will address it. For Cavan-Monaghan LHO, in the Deputy’s constituency, the numbers he requested are as follows: 520 applications in total were not completed within the statutory timeframe of six months, 31 of which were overdue for less than one month, and 36 of which were overdue for between one and three months. The remainder, 453, were overdue for three months or more. These numbers are stark. Every one of them represents a child or young person. I want to see this situation change so that families do not have to wait so long for their assessment of need applications to be processed. That change is happening. We have seen a notable increase in the number of completed AONs nationally over the past two years, but there is a lot more work to be done. That is why, in December 2025, the Government announced a series of improvements to the assessment of need process, including new legislation, which will be coming through pre-legislative scrutiny at the Joint Committee on Disability Matters.
Sentiment score: 0.12
I want to be absolutely clear, and to reassure parents in particular, that proposed legislative changes will not in any way remove any right for parents to apply for an assessment of need for their child, and will not alter the six-month timeline in the Act. That is important to say, and I do not want parents to be misled on that. The changes include changes to Part 2 of the Disability Act, which provides for assessments of need. These legislative changes include ensuring the assessment process focuses on a child’s needs, so that more intensive clinical assessments are only used where required. They will also ensure the development of statutory guidelines to better support HSE assessment officers to do standard assessments in a standardised way, so that no matter where people are in the country, they get the same clinical approach. With regard to the cross-Border scheme, that is definitely worth exploring. At the moment, we want to make sure that we are delivering more assessments of need. To that end, we have prioritised a waitlist initiative. We have set aside €20 million to provide for 6,000 assessments of need to be completed by private providers.
Sentiment score: 0.31
We know that at the heart of this are children - children with disabilities who need access to therapies. Right now, they are waiting too long for access to therapies and too long for assessments of need. That is wrong. That is why, just in December, we outlined reforms. Those reforms include statutory guidelines, which will streamline and standardise the process. That will include decisions being communicated to parents.
Sentiment score: -0.08
There will be a new pathways option for children who are potentially autistic. They will be set up by in-reach teams, 11 of which will be created across the country.
Sentiment score: 0.12
I will revert to the Deputy with that exact number. I have the exact number that he requested in his question, which I read out, but I will get the number for last year too and give it to the Deputy. That is no problem. We are also hiring more people for the CDNT teams. We have a new single point of access that ensures no child is on the wrong waiting list, and there is no such thing as a wrong door from a HSE perspective. In addition, we are supplementing our workforce by outsourcing a number of AONs as well.
Sentiment score: -0.15