Ms Angela O'Neill:

Assessment of need is one of the ways in which children can access services. It is not the only way. Our preference is for children to access services directly through the children's disability network teams, which is what many children and families do. The Deputy will be aware that there have been significant waiting lists for the assessment of need process and that there was significant investment late last year to clear those backlogs. The Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, secured €7.8 million to eliminate those backlogs. At the end of June last year, we had 6,500 overdue assessments of need. That number has been reduced and at the end of April, we had just over 1,400 overdue assessments of need. The Deputy referred specifically to Clare. The mid-west area is one where the backlog is almost eliminated. There are approximately 60 assessments of need outstanding, all of which are in process. Significant progress has been made on assessments of need in recent months.

Our priority is to ensure that children are able to access timely assessments and interventions through the children's disability network teams and that, rather than seeing children based on their position on a waiting list, we should see them based on their needs. The children's disability network teams allow us to do that. We are not focused on diagnosis or doing something because of a court order.

We are prioritising children based on clinical needs. That is what we are working towards with our CDNTs.