Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

On behalf of my colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Rabitte, who has responsibility for disabilities, I thank Deputy Durkan for raising this important issue and for offering us the opportunity to respond. The Government and the HSE are fully committed to delivering real and tangible solutions to enhance services to better support children with disabilities in Ireland. The progressing disability services roadmap 2023 to 2026 focuses on the ongoing development of children's disability network team services to meet current and growing demand. PDS is a needs-led model of service where a child does not require a diagnosis to access services and the CDNTs provide a multidisciplinary assessment of individual needs and strengths as well as therapy supports. The current delays in accessing assessments of need and therapy interventions are acknowledged and work is ongoing by the HSE to maximise the capacity of CDNTs via recruitment campaigns and other measures, including sourcing assessments through private providers.

The HSE advises it is receiving approximately 10,500 applications annually, with around 3,400 assessments of need completed each year. Under budget 2024, record funding of €2.9 billion has been provided for specialist community-based disability services. This 10.6% increase is supporting the HSE in seeking to meet demands in respect of the provision of therapies to children and to also meet the legislative demands of the assessment of need.

On 21 May this year, the Government announced a decision to finance an assessment of need waiting-list initiative through the procurement of private assessments for long-wait families. The waiting list initiative targets those families waiting longer for assessments of need, with the HSE reimbursing clinicians directly through the procurement of capacity from approved private providers. Targeted funding of €6.89 million will allow the HSE to procure up to 2,500 additional assessments of need, with delivery targeted over the next three months, and will target those families waiting longest. Information received from the HSE areas indicates that under this targeted initiative, in the order of 1,100 assessments of need were commissioned from private providers during the months of June, July and August at a total cost of €3.5 million. In the first half of this year, 1,841 assessments of need have been completed, which is a 28% increase on the same period last year. This increase is due, in part, to the new targeted waiting list initiative that commenced.

The HSE continues to seek to recruit therapy professionals to the respective teams in order to enhance capacity. Funding has been allocated by the Government for that purpose as well as private sector bolstering of overall capacity. I also point out that this was one area that was not affected by the moratorium last year. Recruitment continued the whole time. However, while the HSE continues to maximise the capacity of the private sector to support both assessment of need and therapy provision, in keeping with the difficulties in recruitment of health and social care professionals, the HSE reports that private sector capacity is becoming increasingly limited. I am assured by my colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, that this remains a matter of extremely high priority for her as well as for senior leadership within the HSE.

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