Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael)

I do not have a breakdown of the numbers of children who have gone through the process but there has been a 65% increase in assessments in the first three months compared with the same period last year. Even with that said, we know we have a lot more work to do to get through that. I might not have said it earlier, but we absolutely acknowledge people’s statutory right to have access to an assessment of need process. What we want to do here is make sure we have the pipeline of therapists coming through. We are relying on the private sector too and we allocated in budget 2025. Those private assessments are being carried out this year. I can get the exact figure. It is approximately 2,800 this year but I will come back to the Deputy to confirm that.

We are examining what we can do in regard to therapy assistants to try to assist therapists in getting clinical placements within CDNTs. The Minister for education is ramping up in-school therapies in our special schools. My door is open. If there are other suggestions from the Deputy, I would welcome them.

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