Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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431. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the amount of annual funding provided for children with disabilities to participate in preschool education. [28844/24]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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The award winning Access and Inclusion Model (AIM) has supported more than 28,000 children with a disability to access and meaningfully participate in the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programme since it was first introduced in September 2016.

In Budget 2024, I was very pleased to secure an allocation of €57.497m for AIM, including an additional €14m. €7m of the additional allocation is supporting the increasing cohort of children with a disability requiring AIM supports to access and meaningfully participate in the ECCE programme and €7m will provide an extension of AIM support from September 2024. This means that children with a disability registered on the ECCE programme will now be fully supported to access and participate in early learning and childcare settings for up to 30 hours per week year round (including ECCE programme attendance of 15 hours per week during term time).

It is intended that over time, all children with additional needs in early learning and childcare services will have access to supports under AIM. To this end, officials in my Department will also be considering an extension of AIM to children under 3 as well as an extension of AIM to school-age childcare.

Martin Browne (Tipperary, Sinn Fein)
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432. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the funding spent on the drive to recruit health and social care professionals into children’s disability network teams which ended in January 2024; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28899/24]

Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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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.

Martin Browne (Tipperary, Sinn Fein)
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433. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the number of vacancies advertised through the drive to recruit health and social care professionals into children’s disability network teams which ended in January 2024; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28900/24]

Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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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.

Martin Browne (Tipperary, Sinn Fein)
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434. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the availability of the 2023 national report on children’s disability network teams staff census and workforce review; to provide a copy of such if available; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28901/24]

Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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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.

Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour)
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435. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the number and location of therapist posts, including speech and language therapist, psychological and others appointed to special schools within CHO3, in 2022, 2023 and to date in 2024, in tabular form. [28937/24]

Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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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.