Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. I accept fully that the journey of parents of children with special needs is an extremely challenging, difficult and traumatic one. They simply have to fight too hard and too long for access to services and in some cases, though not all, for education and access to school places. It is my objective as Taoiseach to change this story and it is a key priority of mine, along with housing and child poverty. They are the key priorities of my term as Taoiseach and of the wider Government.

I am establishing a disability unit in the Department of the Taoiseach. We had our first meeting with about eight Ministers earlier this week and a disability Cabinet subcommittee will follow. All Ministers are clear that there must be a whole-of-government response to the issue of disability more generally - it is wide - with a particular focus on children in education and then on assessment of needs and, more critically, access to therapy services. In the first instance, we must deal with the assessment of needs issue. The 2022 High Court judgment of Ms Justice Phelan in the case of C.T.M. (a minor) v HSE has created a situation where there are huge resources and backlog in the area of assessment of needs. The Deputy is correct that the number is 14,000. That is not tenable. Legislation has to be brought in to deal with this. That will happen and there will be engagement with the House on it.

We have to get the right balance of existing resources to the services and the provision of services. You do not have to get an assessment of need to avail of services. You should have an entitlement to services even when awaiting the assessment of need. The Minister for Education is developing proposals for a school-based therapy service beginning in special schools. This was a commitment we made in the programme for Government which we are going to see through. The CDNTs and HSE are continuing to recruit across the 93 CDNTs. The current recruitment campaign has issued about 145 job offers across key therapy roles. Progress is slow. There was a 17% increase in staff from 2023 to 2024 and another 111 are expected to join soon. The vacancy rate has dropped by 7.9% to 21%, but none of that is enough. It is not adequate.

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