Finian McGrath (Dublin Bay North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Brendan Smith for raising this matter. On a recent visit to Monaghan, I met him and Deputy Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin. I thank the people of the area, including many of the parents we met at the intellectual disabilities facility in Monaghan. I also saw examples of good practice in the Monaghan area. I was delighted to find that Monaghan is the only area in Ireland that does not have a congregated setting. All the settings are located in smaller community houses. It was a very important and historic day as far as I was concerned.

I assure the Deputy that the Government is committed to the provision and development of services for children with special needs, and to improving access by these children to assessments and therapy services, in so far as is possible, within available resources. In the Cavan and Monaghan area, the school age team provide autism services to children aged six to 18 years old and Enable Ireland provides services to children from zero to six years old under the early intervention team. The autism-spectrum-disorder service within each team is multidisciplinary in nature.

Unfortunately, there are staff shortages in a number of disciplines, despite much effort going into filling these posts. Currently, there is only one senior clinical psychologist in post in the school-age team covering both counties. I accept the Deputy's point. As a result, the psychologist's capacity to meet the demand for assessment and intervention for children with autism is limited. The demand for this service continues to outweigh current capacity.

Recruitment for a second psychologist continues to be actively addressed as recruitment campaigns to date have proven unsuccessful. There is the gap in the system. I accept it is not acceptable and we have to ensure we fill that post. There are similar recruitment issues in the areas of speech and language therapy services, and in occupational therapy services. I assure the Deputy that the HSE is committed to fill these posts and reduce waiting times for assessments and therapies.

In the meantime, the Cavan-Monaghan disability services school-age team continually reviews existing waiting lists and is in the process of reconfiguring services to provide greater access for children requiring a multidisciplinary team autism assessment.

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 nationwide. The HSE's national programme on progressing disability services for children and young people from zero to 18 years aims to bring about equity of access to disability services and consistency of service delivery, with a clear pathway to services for children with disabilities and their families, regardless of where a family lives, what school the child attends or the nature of the individual child's difficulties.

The programme has entailed targeted investment of €14 million and the provision of 275 additional therapy staff, in order 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 up to 18 years old. This investment represents a long-term increase in speech and language capacity that is being maintained in 2017. It is acknowledged that waiting times to access required assessments are high in some areas, including Cavan-Monaghan. There has been continual additional investment in this area in order to support the HSE as it faces significant challenges in respect of meeting the statutory timeframes which apply to the assessment-of-need process.

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