Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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19. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the progress being made to ensure that every child who requires an assessment of needs has early access to same, given the importance of early intervention; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39170/24]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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Both the Government and the HSE remain committed to the delivery of appropriate services for children with disabilities and will work with families and staff to develop services that meet their needs.

I acknowledge the delays in accessing Assessments of Need (AONs) and therapy interventions, directly related to vacancies across the Children’s Disability Network Teams (CDNTs). Work is ongoing by the HSE to maximise the capacity of CDNTs via recruitment campaigns and other measures, including through sourcing assessments through private providers.

Funding has been provided in recent years for specific measures to address AON backlogs: €16.5m in Budgets 2023 and 2024.

On 21^st May 2024, the Government announced a decision to finance an AON waiting list initiative, through the procurement of private assessments for long waiting families. Targeted funding of €6.89m will allow the HSE to procure up to 2,500 additional AONs from private providers with delivery targeted over the next 3 months which will target those families waiting longest for AONs.

The HSE advise that under this targeted initiative, in the order of 1,100 AONs were commissioned from private providers/assessors during the months of June, July and August at a total cost of €3.57m. In the first half of the year, 1,841 AONs have been completed, which is a 28% increase on the same period last year. This increase is due, in part, to the new targeted waiting list initiative.

The roll-out of Regional Assessment Hubs sees the provision of personnel dedicated to the delivery of AON, while preserving the time of other clinical staff for the purposes of therapy interventions for children within the CDNT network.

I look forward to these measures, and others, being of benefit to children and families accessing therapeutic services nationwide.