Pádraig O'Sullivan (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
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53. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the engagement he has had with the HSE regarding the need to source private contractors following the recent announcement that the Government will finance an AON initiative; how soon he expects an impact will be made on the waitlist; if he is confident that progress can be made to clear the backlog; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26000/24]

Pádraig O'Sullivan (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
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I ask the Minister about the engagement he has had with the HSE regarding the need to source private contractors following the recent announcement the Government will finance an assessment of needs initiative. How soon does he expect the impact will be made on the waiting list and is he confident progress can be made to clear the backlog?

Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Deputy for raising this question. It is a little bit like Cinderella at this hour, 12 midnight, and Deputy O'Sullivan appears. To be honest, we normally never get to deal with this number of questions. It is the first time we have done it, so I am answering this one totally unscripted. Luckily, I was at the committee today and I do remember what was said to his question.

Thanks to the Taoiseach and the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, who is here beside me, the Cabinet approved and ring-fenced €6.8 million, which is to look after 2,500 of our longest waiters. From talking to Bernard O'Regan earlier today, clear direction will be given from the HSE's national office of disability that the assessment officers will determine who are the longest waiters because they are the people in the nine CHOs who will have access to that information.

The HSE also has €5 million to carry out other assessments of need. That is going to ensure 1,850 children will have an assessment of need. At the same time, there is capacity of approximately 3,200 within our 91 teams across all of our services, which would mean that because of the additional funding, the overall assessments of need we should get through this year will be 7,650. That still does not address the fact we have 9,900 people who are overdue an assessment of need from a statutory viewpoint, and we are only in the month of June at this time. I have no doubt the figure will grow. Given that, we sought the funding in advance. Do I think they will get to it? Absolutely. Do I see it all done? I will ensure that when I meet with my disability managers, I know exactly what percentage they are doing each month.

Pádraig O'Sullivan (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
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I welcome the initiative. It is just like in 2022 when the last attempt was made to clear the backlog, especially in my CHO in Cork, CHO 4. I have considerable concerns that we are here again, two years on, with another waiting list. Will the Minister of State elaborate on the reasons for that given, as I said, we thought we had cleared the waiting list two years ago and now we find ourselves back in this position again with another waiting list? As many TDs in the House recognise, one of the most significant issues in weekly constituency clinics is people struggling to access therapies, assessments of needs and so on. Will the Minister of State please clarify the position? I welcome the fact she has sourced the funding. To be fair, the vast majority of people and the stakeholders involved recognise her good work on this, but will she clarify the reason we are here again two years on?

Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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Deputy O'Sullivan is right. We managed to clear the backlog with the funding that was sourced in 2020 when we had 6,500 children waiting for an assessment of need. It took us approximately 14 months to clear the entire backlog. Why have we found ourselves here again? We have found ourselves here again because of the soft model, which is the standard operational procedure, SOP, which meant that 10,000 children were deemed to have a right to access an assessment of need in its entirety. The assessment of need does not take one or two hours. It is actually the guts of approximately 30 hours of full assessment. Let us also be clear: when we cleared the backlog in 2020, it was also the full 30 hours' assessment.

The other piece we will have to look at is the flexibility of doing the interventions. The no-show rate is only 10%, so to be very fair to parents, they are very committed once they get a time to attend. Our no-show rates are very light in this regard. I have no doubt any parent who gets it will attend the assessment process.

Pádraig O'Sullivan (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
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Despite the difficulties we have experienced, I cannot reiterate enough that I commend the Minister of State on the work she has done. I know we have talked privately and we have met with stakeholders. We have talked about the benefits of AIM classes in particular and access to language classes, especially for students who do not require an assessment of need to be undertaken. In the remaining time, will the Minister of State speak to the importance of AIM classes and language classes for kids who have a requirement for intervention and how we can best utilise that model and possibly expand those classes in future? What conversations has she had with the Minister for Education in that regard?

Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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This is a new concept I was not completely aware of, namely, that we have 63 specific speech and language disorder, SSLD, classes in the country, which are speech and language classes for children with very set criteria who have verbal dyspraxia. There are seven in a class with the lead teacher and a speech and language therapist. They know that with regular daily intervention over a two-year programme, the child's speech can come on. There is no doubt that is the case. The clinical outcomes of the classes are incredibly successful. In fact, the therapists in those schools come under the remit of primary care and the Minister for Health, Deputy Donnelly. I will be appealing to him and to the Minister for Education, Deputy Foley, to step up these classes because they are critical from a primary intervention point of view, as opposed to specialist disabilities.

We must also seek to widen the use of the 2007 circular. That circular omits the fact that children with Down's syndrome can participate in these classes. It does not include them or see them as being part of mainstream education. That is also the case with children with physical disabilities. When we talk about the UNCRPD and mainstreaming, the SSLD classes should be expanded to more than 63 schools but they also should be expanded to include children with Down's syndrome and physical disabilities. That is my appeal to the two Ministers for budget 2025.