Fintan Warfield (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. I apologise for missing her contribution because I had to attend a briefing provided by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage ahead of tomorrow's legislation.

In advance of this debate I took the opportunity to read the discussion that took place at the meeting of the Joint Committee on Disability Matters in May on the topic of the progressing disability services model and the withdrawal of occupational therapies from schools. Much of this has been discussed here but it is apparent that there were a large and growing number of children on the waiting list for an assessment of needs, with many having waited for very long periods. I know once-off funding of €7.8 million was provided in June 2020 to address the issue. Overdue assessments of need stood at around 6,500 in June 2020. By September of this year, approximately 6,040 children had an assessment completed, so the backlog was reduced to around 520 cases. While this process greatly reduced the waiting lists for an assessment of need, it was achieved by transferring many therapists away from conducting actual therapy interventions to conducting assessments of need. While many children had their needs assessed, they have not yet received any of the therapies identified as needed in their assessments of needs, and the list of children to receive therapy interventions has grown.

At the committee meeting last May, it was also stated that 40 children's disability network teams were up and running and the rest - 91 in total - would be up and running by the end of the second quarter. I do not believe this commitment was realised. I saw a question asked by one of my party colleagues, Deputy Pauline Tully. In September, the Minister, Deputy McGrath, acknowledged that only 83 of the children's disability network teams had been fully configured and the remaining teams would be configured by the end of November. I would be interested in hearing an update on that from the Minister of State present.

The success of PDS was dependent on proper planning of the change and resources being made available to the new CDNTs set up around the country. Neither has happened and confusion now abounds in the this area of children's disability.

Senators Ardagh and Seery Kearney have spoken about the local experience.Reports are coming into constituency offices throughout the State regarding ongoing issues with some CDNTs that have been established, such as insufficient staff, low morale, with staff finding it difficult to cope, constant turnover of staff, and many children not receiving the therapies they require. Some children are being told they will have to wait two to three years for various therapies. Although funding was made available for the recruitment of additional therapists, the HSE is finding it hard to recruit some of the professions, especially psychologists. I call for the remaining CDNTs to be configured and resourced properly. There is a need for a significant increase in therapists across all disciplines, as the Minister of State mentioned. Psychologists are in particularly short supply. There needs to be a ramping up of service delivery. Children need access to consistent therapy interventions. Training courses for parents are welcome in addition to access to therapy interventions but should in no way be used to replace face-to-face interventions from therapists.

Finally, the issue of the transfer of medical records to the national disability network teams needs to be sorted out as soon as possible. I thank the Minister of State for coming to the House and the opportunity to put on record some of these matters.