Marcella Corcoran Kennedy (Offaly, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am pleased to have the opportunity to update the House on behalf of the Minister of State, Deputy Finian McGrath, who extends his apologies for being unable to attend. I am glad to update Deputy Ó Caoláin on progress in developing services for children with disabilities and the current position on waiting times and needs assessment. I thank the Deputy for raising this important matter, which is one that has been close to his heart for a long time.

The HSE has recognised that early intervention services and services for school-aged children with disabilities need to be improved and organised more effectively and this process is well under way. While there has been continual additional investment in the area, we recognise that the HSE faces significant challenges in respect of meeting the statutory timeframes which apply to the assessment of needs process under the Disability Act 2005 due to the volume of applications, which continues to increase year on year. The HSE is currently engaged in a reconfiguration of existing therapy resources to geographic based teams for children. The objective of the new model of assessment and intervention is to provide one clear referral pathway for all children irrespective of disability, place of residence or school attended. The level of requests for assessment is higher in areas where the reconfiguration of children's disability services has yet to take place, which suggests that where a good service is being provided, the need for assessment is reduced. Some areas have proven particularly challenging in respect of waiting times for assessment and therapeutic service delivery. An example is the Cork-Kerry region where a number of measures have been put in place to deal with waiting lists.

Since 2014, the roll-out of the programme progressing disability services for children and young people has entailed the targeted investment of €14 million and the provision of 275 additional therapy staff to increase services for children with all disabilities. In 2016, €4 million was provided under the HSE's national service plan to focus specifically on speech and language therapy waiting lists in primary care and social care for children aged up to 18 years. This investment represents a long-term increase in speech and language therapy capacity which will be maintained into 2017. A Programme for a Partnership Government commits the Government to improving services and increasing supports for people with disabilities, particular in respect of early assessment and intervention for children with special needs. Significant resources have been invested by the health sector in services for children with disabilities over the last number of years, which is something we all welcome.

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