Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising the question and for the opportunity to answer it. In August 2020, additional Sláintecare funding of €7.8 million was provided to the HSE to address the issue of overdue assessments of need. The funding was provided on a once-off and strictly time bound basis to eliminate all assessments of need overdue by 30 June 2020. While the number of overdue assessments of need stood at 6,558 in June 2020, through a combination of different measures, by the end of September 2021, approximately 6,040 children have had their assessment completed, which is an overall reduction of 92%.

I am pleased to inform the Deputy that six CHOs, including CHO 5, which had 643 overdue assessments of need at the end of June 2020 have now cleared their backlog. The breakdown of the 643 overdue assessments were 80 in Carlow-Kilkenny; 111 in Tipperary south riding; 168 in Waterford; and 284 in Wexford. The number of overdue assessments at the end of June 2021 in CHO 5, which is the latest figure available, was reduced to 180. There were 19 in Carlow-Kilkenny; 54 in Tipperary south riding; 59 in Waterford; and 48 in Wexford. The Deputy will also be aware 91 children’s disability network teams will be reconfigured in the coming weeks.

In budget 2022, we are providing additional funding for the recruitment of therapists and administrative staff. As the Minister said, our focus in on changing to a more agile approach in how we will do the interventions. While we have cleared the assessments of need, now it is all about intervention with occupational therapists, physiotherapists and speech, language therapists and psychologists and us all working together as a collective team within health to ensure backlogs start to clear and waiting times for the delivery of services are reduced. I am confident with the €10 million the Minister has allocated to me in budget 2022 that work will start now and the HSE is ready to deliver it.

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