Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)

I have never made any secret of the fact that I personally believe the assessment of need process is broken, and that we need to do a lot better. I can say that there has been a 57% increase in completed assessments in the first nine months of this year, but the backlog is enormous. We need to do better. I will be bringing a memo to the Cabinet that will include the draft heads of a Bill. We are looking at how we can make the system better. It will retain the right for somebody to access an AON and will also retain the timeframe. It will focus on the delivery of timely and efficient access to therapy. We have found, for example, that 30% of people who go through the process are told at the end of the day that they do not have a disability. However, they have a need. I personally believe that the focus should be on the need from the beginning.

The Deputy asked specifically about private assessments. Approximately 6,000 private assessments were done last year. A similar tranche of funding is being made available this year, and approximately €20 million has been made available in budget 2026 for private assessments.

As we are looking at the AON aspect, we are also looking at some of the other drivers. We must be very clear that an AON is not needed to access health services, whether for mental health, primary care, CDNTs or whatever the case may be. People are still accessing that. We are working with the HSE on two different things. One is that there would be a single point of access, so people are not on a multiplicity of lists. That would be a big help to families. Second, the HSE is working on an autism protocol, so there will be a single and more expedient access point for autism diagnosis. Again, it is interesting to see that 45% of all of the completed assessments in the first nine months of the year had an autism diagnosis. We are looking at things in the round.

The third thing we are looking at is working with the Department of education regarding the AON being required for special classes or special schools. We are working very closely together. Going forward, it should be education-led as opposed to AON-led.