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

The Government acknowledges challenges faced by children and young people with disabilities and their families accessing essential therapy services in Cavan and Monaghan. The staff vacancy rate for Cavan, which is an Enable Ireland team, is currently 58% with a total of 11.96 whole-time equivalent staff in situ. The staff vacancy rate for Monaghan HSE is at 39%, with a total of 17.81 whole-time equivalent staff in situ. Currently, there are 570 children on the caseload in the CDNT in Cavan and 662 in the CDNT in Monaghan. Work is ongoing to bolster the CDNTs and enhance their staffing complement to provide suitable appointments for therapy services.

To achieve this, I am pleased to report a positive response to the recent CDNT recruitment campaign, Be part of our team, be part of their lives, which received more than 500 applications and the HSE national and local HR is now progressing to the next stage of the selection process with appointments expected in the coming weeks. They have examined what areas of the country people had chosen to be in. They have been sent out to the CHOs the same way they have also been sent to Enable Ireland. I have to meet with Enable Ireland representatives in the coming days to see if it is working at the same pace as the HSE to start interviews and identify the sites where successful candidates can be put and how quickly this can be done.

The HSE is also driving a number of initiatives to provide supports so urgently needed for wait-listed children. The HSE launched the children's disability service grant, which has an aim of strengthening services for children with a disability currently waiting on CDNT service and that is due to be launched in the next two or three days. We are very close to having that finalised. The fund calls for applications for disability service providers and community groups that can provide additional innovative services such as recognised sensory programmes, evidence-based therapies, respite services, clubs, evening and weekend sessions and additional therapy sessions for services users such as managing challenging behaviours.

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