Results 8,581-8,600 of 9,472 for speaker:Hildegarde Naughton

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Disability Services (19 Feb 2025)

Hildegarde Naughton: As this question refers to service matters, I have asked the Health Service Executive (HSE) to respond to the Deputy directly, as soon as possible.

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Disability Diagnoses (19 Feb 2025)

Hildegarde Naughton: I thank the Deputy for this question and note that while eligibility criteria for different schemes and supports offered by the state can differ, in broad terms we do not define disability by way of reference to individualised impairments or medicalised diagnoses. For instance the Disability Act 2005 interprets disability as meaning a “substantial restriction in the capacity of the...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Disability Services (20 Feb 2025)

Hildegarde Naughton: As this question refers to service matters, I have asked the Health Service Executive (HSE) to respond to the Deputy directly, as soon as possible.

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Disability Services (20 Feb 2025)

Hildegarde Naughton: As this question refers to service matters, I have asked the Health Service Executive (HSE) to respond to the Deputy directly, as soon as possible.

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Disabilities Assessments (20 Feb 2025)

Hildegarde Naughton: As this question refers to service matters, I have asked the Health Service Executive (HSE) to respond to the Deputy directly, as soon as possible.

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Disability Services (20 Feb 2025)

Hildegarde Naughton: The Deputy has clarified that this question relates to Primary Care services which are a matter for the Department of Health.

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Disability Services (20 Feb 2025)

Hildegarde Naughton: As this question refers to service matters, I have asked the Health Service Executive (HSE) to respond to the Deputy directly, as soon as possible.

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Disability Services (20 Feb 2025)

Hildegarde Naughton: As this question refers to service matters, I have asked the Health Service Executive (HSE) to respond to the Deputy directly, as soon as possible.

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Disabilities Assessments (20 Feb 2025)

Hildegarde Naughton: As this question refers to service matters, I have asked the Health Service Executive (HSE) to respond to the Deputy directly, as soon as possible.

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Disability Services (20 Feb 2025)

Hildegarde Naughton: As this question refers to service matters, I have asked the Health Service Executive (HSE) to respond to the Deputy directly, as soon as possible.

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Disability Services (20 Feb 2025)

Hildegarde Naughton: As this question refers to service matters, I have asked the Health Service Executive (HSE) to respond to the Deputy directly, as soon as possible.

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Disability Services (20 Feb 2025)

Hildegarde Naughton: The Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act 2015, along with the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) (Amendment) Act 2022, commenced on the 26th of April 2023. The Acts provide a modern statutory framework to support decision-making by adults with capacity difficulties, and represent a crucial shift away from a ‘best interests’ approach to a rights-based approach to capacity,...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Employment Support Services (20 Feb 2025)

Hildegarde Naughton: Government acknowledges that considerable barriers to employment exist for people with disabilities and that the rate of unemployment among disabled people is unacceptably high. Government policy is to continually increase the number of people with disabilities in employment and while there is more to be done, progress has been made to ensure that disabled people are supported to pursue...

Disability: Statements (25 Feb 2025)

Hildegarde Naughton: I thank Members for their contributions on what is a very important topic. The Government is absolutely committed to ensuring that people with disabilities can live full lives with the same rights and access to services, education, transport, sport, culture, careers and means to live independently as all other citizens enjoy. Since being appointed the Minister of State with special...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Special Educational Needs (25 Feb 2025)

Hildegarde Naughton: The Government recognises that waiting lists for assessments of need are far too long and have a significant impact on the needs of children and their families. It should be noted that children who require services from a children's disability network team, CDNT, do not require a diagnosis or a statutory assessment of need, AON. However, it is a fact that demand for AONs has increased...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Special Educational Needs (25 Feb 2025)

Hildegarde Naughton: The Deputy is entirely correct about the stress, frustration, worry and anger of parents out there, and I absolutely acknowledge this point. They want access to therapies for their children. In many cases, they also want a diagnosis. There is a combination of reasons why people look for assessments of need. I absolutely accept that. The administrative hubs are in CHOs 1, 4, 5, 7 and...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Special Educational Needs (25 Feb 2025)

Hildegarde Naughton: I will certainly follow up with the HSE on that issue. What we want to do here is ensure that children and others with disabilities, including adults, are getting the therapies and services they need and require. That is my focus, that of the Minister, Deputy Foley, and of the Government. I refer to ensuring that we have the services and therapies required, be they occupational therapists,...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Disability Services (25 Feb 2025)

Hildegarde Naughton: I thank the Deputy for his question. The Government is committed to providing early intervention services to children with disabilities and their families as referenced in the programme for Government. A total of €3.2 billion has been allocated for disability services in budget 2025. This is an 11.6% increase on 2024 and represents an overall increase since 2020 of €1.2...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Disability Services (25 Feb 2025)

Hildegarde Naughton: 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...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Disability Services (25 Feb 2025)

Hildegarde Naughton: I thank Deputy Farrelly for his support in this regard. My door is open as well if there are any good ideas. We do not have the monopoly on solutions and my door is fully open in that regard. This is about ongoing recruitment. We have also been looking at what else we can do. There may be people working in other disciplines within the health sector who want to become therapists and...