Alan Dillon (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I want to raise my concerns in relation to children’s disability network team, CDNT, services in County Mayo. Parents of children with disabilities are in a constant fight to access services, often resorting to private care, which is sometimes oversubscribed to avoid long waiting lists in the public system. The waiting lists continue to grow in Mayo at a pace with which the HSE clearly cannot cope. Children are being left behind when early intervention is of critical importance.

The Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, who has responsibility in the area of disability, acknowledges that the Progressing Disability Services for Children and Young People programme is not working. She is trying very hard to fix it and I commend her on that. However, the problem lies not with the disability services, but with accessibility to those services. Our CDNTs are primarily run with a shortage of staff; there is a job vacancy rate of over 25% across the country and of 27% in Mayo. The HSE has continuously stated it is exploring all options available to it to tackle the waiting times. However, it believes that significant population growth has led to an increase in waiting times. Can the Taoiseach confirm what options the HSE is exploring? Has the capacity been evaluated within our private sector? I urge the Government to consider reimbursing patients who have had to pay private practitioners to access services for children with special needs.

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