Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Independent)
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856. To ask the Minister for Health further to Parliamentary Questions No. 248 and 250 of 3 April 2014 and No. 650 of 24 June 2014, his position on the report completed by the National Disability Authority into the practice of the assessment of need under the Disability Act 2005 which was submitted by the NDA for consideration by his Department [33270/14]

Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)
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Part 2 of the Disability 2005 Act, which was commenced on 1 June 2007, provides for an assessment of the needs of eligible applicants, occasioned by their disability, to be commenced within three months of receipt of an application and completed within a further three months. In 2011, the Department of Health and the HSE jointly commissioned the National Disability Authority (NDA) to review the operation of the Assessment of Need (AON) process in the HSE. This report was published by the NDA and can be accessed at www.nda.ie.

The NDA research has found that that there was no one single solution to remove all of the challenges to operating a statutory assessment of need. It also found that where integrated children's disability teams have already been established under the HSE’s Progressing Disability Services for Children and Young People Programme, the AON process has worked more smoothly. In light of the NDA’s findings, an additional emphasis is currently being placed on re-configuring children's disability services into integrated multi-disciplinary geographically-based early-intervention and school-aged teams, as part of the HSE's Progressing Disability Services Programme. The aim of this Programme is to bring about equity and consistency, with a clear pathway for children with disabilities and their families to services, regardless of where they live, what school they go to or the nature of their difficulty. The Programme is a key priority for the HSE in 2014, with an additional €4m allocated to assist in its implementation.

Officials from my Department will continue to engage with the HSE and the NDA to further consider the findings contained in this Report.