Colm Burke (Cork North Central, Fine Gael)
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1945. To ask the Minister for Health the additional resources that have been allocated to help amend the extensive waiting time for children to receive special needs assessments; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35584/21]

Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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In August 2020 the HSE secured €7.8m to address the issue of overdue Assessments of Need (AON).

This funding was provided on a once off and strictly time bound basis to eliminate all AONs overdue at 30th June 2020. While the number of overdue Assessment of Need stood at approximately 6,500 in June 2020, through a combination of different measures, by the end of April 2021 approximately 5,150 children have had their assessment completed, thus reducing the backlog to approximately 1,350 cases. An overall reduction, since the exercise began of approximately 80%. 3 CHOs have cleared their backlog, one of which has exceeded its target.