Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I formally congratulate the Leas-Cheann Comhairle on her recent election. I know she will do a fabulous job.

I thank Deputy Doherty for raising this important question. All of us know from our personal lives, people we know or constituents who come to us with their problems and difficulties how big an issue this is. Children are waiting for too long to get an assessment. We know that more than 6,000 have been waiting for more than six months to get the assessment of needs they need. It puts a lot of stress on them and on their parents and families. We know the delay in an assessment of need can be very expensive in the long run because earlier intervention means better outcomes sooner, and a delay in intervention can result in higher costs for the taxpayer in the longer term. This problem has existed for a long time and it is one we acknowledge and want to resolve.

The new Government is committed to improving access to assessments and therapies for all children who require them. To achieve this, some important reforms are now under way. The HSE disability service is engaged in a major reconfiguring of its existing therapy resources for children with disabilities into multidisciplinary geographically-based programmes. This is part of the national programme for progressing disability services for young people. The objective of this is to make sure we bring about equity of access to disability services so it should not matter what part of the country children live in as they will have equal access to those services, and to provide consistency with a clear pathway to the services for children with disabilities and their families regardless of where they live, what school they go to or the nature of their particular difficulties.

Additionally, a revised standard operating procedure for an assessment of need has been developed and implementation began in January 2020. Obviously, a lot of this was delayed as a consequence of Covid and the fact that assessments could not happen one to one. They could happen over a video link but not in person. Everyone will understand why this is not the same thing. The new procedure provides a standardised approach to assessment in all areas and is designed to ensure children with disabilities and their families can access appropriate assessment and intervention as quickly as possible. The reforms involve important structural changes that will have a positive impact on services for all children with disabilities, including those with autism, and the budget provided an additional €2 million in funding for an autism plan for these services.

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