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

I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue and for giving me the opportunity to discuss it in the House this evening. He raised some very valuable questions in his contribution. As Minister of State with responsibility for disabilities, I recognise and acknowledge that the Progressing Disability Services, PDS, programme has been challenging for many stakeholders, but especially so for families, the children, and the young people using the service. It is also important to acknowledge the challenges that are there for staff because they are working under tremendous pressure. These challenges have resulted in unacceptably long delays for families to access much needed therapies for their children.

As Minister of State, I once again want to put on the record my sincerest apologies to any family experiencing such delays. Prior to the introduction of the PDS programme, children in different parts of the country with the same needs could be given much more, or, much less service, based on geography rather than need. This was clearly unfair and needed to change. The core principle of PDS is to achieve fairer and more equitable access to services for all children with disabilities, based on their needs, and not where they happen to live.

Regrettably since PDS was rolled out, there has been a levelling down of services to children and families. As I said previously in this House, the reconfiguration of children's disability network teams, CDNTs, by the HSE across the country has faced particular challenges with regard to recruitment. There is currently an average vacancy rate of 28% across the 91 CDNTs, which equates to approximately 524 vacancies out of a total allocation of 1,892 staff members. Notwithstanding these challenges, it is important to acknowledge the significant work involved in establishing the CDNTs.

Approximately 35,000 children are currently receiving services and supports provided by these teams. The underlying vacancy rate in CDNTs is not because of a lack of Government resources. In that regard, I have secured funding for the HSE for additional posts in recent years to strengthen the capacity of CDNTs to ensure services can be provided.

I take on board what the Deputy is saying in respect of the remuneration to retain the staff, where if a person has been there for a certain number of years, he or she should be moved to a senior post, so that we can at least backfill into the more junior grades in order to retain that skill set. That it is there. I am very clear in my saying that to the HSE. We need to flush through our panels to ensure we fill as many posts as possible between now and the end of the year and the start of January. Where do not fill them, we need to ensure our senior posts are protected. If people have worked on those teams for a number of years, those staff members need to be given the opportunity to apply for positions, so that at least we have a senior clinical grade on the team.

There are two senior posts, which the Deputy outlined. There are two staff grade posts that are filled and a psychology assistant post that is filled. Currently, there are two vacant staff grade posts that, despite repeated efforts, the CDNTs have been unable to fill. It is regrettable that one of these posts has been vacant since March 2022, and the other since May 2022. The challenge to recruit staff grade psychologists is echoed across the mid-west and nationally. Even in CHO 2 in Mayo, where there are three CDNTs, it does not have one psychologist between the three teams. We need to look at a far more agile approach.

The proposal, which from the Psychological Society of Ireland, PSI, is a very good way of remunerating people and giving them the opportunity while they learn their skill to have clinical oversight and perhaps giving us the opportunity to retain them for the four or five years.

Perhaps if I had not had a more challenging budget, this would have been one of the priorities I would have ensured happened. The two other Deputies in the House are from CHO 4 which this year adopted that exact model in regard to four positions because it was failing to recruit. This is something that needs to be mirrored right across the country. I will deal with the rest of the Deputy's questions in my next response.

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