Brendan Griffin (Kerry South, Fine Gael)
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227. To ask the Minister for Health when the 80 new nationwide posts allocated to County Kerry Health Service Executive for multidisciplinary services will come on stream; if additional posts will be allocated to County Kerry from the national allocation; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25077/14]

James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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The Health Service Executive has recognised the need to increase the level of consistency and standardisation in the way services for children with disabilities are delivered. It is currently engaged in a reconfiguration of existing therapy resources to multidisciplinary geographic based teams for children as part of its National Programme on Progressing Disability Services for Children and Young People (0-18 years).

The aim of the Progressing Disability Services for Children and Young People 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 Programme is organised at national, regional and local level and includes representatives from the health and education sectors, non-statutory service providers and parents. An additional €4m has been specifically allocated in 2014 to drive implementation of the Programme. This equates to approximately 80 therapy posts.

As the specific issue raised by the Deputy is an operational matter for the HSE I have arranged for the Deputy's question to be referred to the Executive for direct reply to him.