Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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660. To ask the Minister for Health when a child (details provided) in County Mayo who has been awaiting a occupational therapist appointment since October 2013 will receive an appointment; his views on whether children with autism and their families are being adversely affected by having to wait such long periods for an appointment with an occupational therapist; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16608/14]

James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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The Government is committed to the provision and development of services for children with special needs within available resources. Health related therapy supports and interventions for these children can be accessed through both the Health Service Executive’s primary care services and its disability services.

The HSE's National Service Plan 2013 provided for additional funding of €20m to strengthen primary care services. This comprises over €18.5m for the recruitment of over 260 primary care team posts and over €1.4m to support community intervention team development. In terms of disability services, therapy services for children are currently being reconfigured into geographically-based multidisciplinary teams, as part of the HSE’s Progressing Disability Services for Children and Young People (0-18years) Programme.The objective of this Programme is to achieve a national, unified approach to delivering disability health services so that there is a clear pathway to services for all children, regardless of where they live, what school they go to or the nature of their disability. The National Service Plan 2014 provides for targeted investment of €4m for the roll out of this Programme which equates to 80 additional therapy posts.

The additional investment that is being made in both primary care and disability services and the reconfiguration of children’s disability services into geographically-based multidisciplinary teams will have a positive impact on the provision of clinical services for all children requiring access to health related supports, including occupational therapy.

As the particular issue raised by the Deputy relates to an individual case, this is a service matter for the HSE. Accordingly, I have arranged for the question to be referred to the HSE for direct reply to the Deputy.