Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

In regard to early intervention, it is worth noting that in education, the access and inclusion model, AIM, is in place to support children with additional needs to access and meaningfully participate in early learning and childcare by providing universal supports to preschool settings generally and targeted supports based on the needs of the individual without requiring a diagnosis.

The Deputy asked what we are doing regarding recruitment, both domestically and in the international field as well. We are trying to recruit. As he is aware, recruitment and retention are a challenge across all sectors, but in particular this sector, and a significant focus of the Government is filling the vacant posts within the 93 CDNTs. To optimise the recruitment into funded agencies, the HSE is facilitating direct access for funded agencies to existing HSE health and social care professional panels, which will shorten the recruitment process. In addition, our Department is working with the HSE to seek to introduce specific recruitment and retention incentives for therapists to work in CDNTs, along with the CDNT sponsorship programme, which has bursaries for fourth year and postgraduate students linked to acceptance of job offers. We are also expanding places in higher education facilities. We have an extra 150 therapists now going through the third level system.

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