Frank Feighan (Sligo-Leitrim, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputies for raising this important matter. On behalf of my colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, I reaffirm the Government's commitment to children with disabilities and their families.

As Minister of State with responsibility for disabilities, Deputy Rabbitte is fully committed to the development and enhancement of services for children with disabilities. She recognises that the changes brought about through the progressing disability services, PDS, programme have been challenging for many stakeholders, including health professionals and referrers, but most importantly for families. As she has outlined many times when this issue is raised, every Member of the House strives to reduce waiting times for children who require therapy supports. She welcomes the full reconfiguration of children's disability services in the children's disability network teams, CDNTs, with a total of 91 CDNTs across the nine community healthcare organisations.

While this is a positive step, it must be acknowledged that there have been significant difficulties in certain parts of the country in the implementation of the PDS by the HSE. The Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, has openly acknowledged this. Unfortunately, these issues have resulted in long delays for families to access much-needed therapies for their children. These delays have caused untold stress and justifiable anger on the part of those families. That anger is understandable and deeply regrettable. Once again, the Minister of State and I wish to put on the record the Government's sincerest apologies to any family experiencing these delays. Such delays are unacceptable and we must work together to find innovative and suitable means to overcome the constraints affecting service delivery.

The Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, recently hosted a families' disability services forum in Meath where she listened to a number of concerned families speak about long waiting times for both assessments and therapy supports. She is aware that some families in the area are waiting four years for an assessment of needs. Once again, and in particular for the benefit of families who may not be aware of this, it is not necessary for a child to have an assessment of needs to access therapy supports. The Minister of State is aware that network teams in Kingscourt, Dunshaughlin, Navan and so forth are experiencing challenges, particularly in the area of recruitment, resulting in unacceptably low child-to-therapist staffing ratios which lead to unacceptable delays in accessing supports. This is reflective of the national picture. The HSE recently undertook a national children's disability network teams staff census which highlighted that the CHOs are, on average, operating with a 28% vacancy rate. This is one of a number of issues that require long-term solutions. I assure Members that the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, is currently engaging with HSE officials from the national office on this.

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