Pauline Tully (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I want to raise the issue of the crisis in the PDS programme. On Tuesday, I received the staff census and workforce review for 2022 of the 91 children's disability network teams, and it makes for dismal reading. There is a vacancy rate nationally of 34% across the CHOs. It ranges from 19% to a high of 43%, but some teams have vacancy rates in the 50s and 60s, with one team on 68%.

In my home county, Cavan, it is 41% and in Monaghan it is 47%. The progressing disability services for children and young people programme is not working. It is failing children and families and I do not see any clear plan from the HSE to address this. It has not even sat down to meet representative bodies of the different therapists, including occupational therapists and physiotherapists, to see what is the best way forward. The HSE has never met with them or taken on their recommendations. This needs to be treated as a crisis. Children are being failed. The Joint Committee on Autism is being hosted in the Seanad today. Families are coming to share their experience and it is absolutely heartbreaking. Something needs to be done.

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