Rory Hearne (Dublin North-West, Social Democrats)
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115. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth to report on work being done in respect of early diagnosis interventions and access to services as referenced in the Disability chapter of the Programme for Government. [6427/25]

Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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I would like to thank the Deputy for his question. The Government is committed to providing early intervention services to children with disabilities and their families, as referenced in the Programme for Government.

A total of €3.2 billion has been allocated for Disability Services in Budget 2025, which is an 11.6% increase on 2024 and represents an overall increase since 2020 of €1.2bn. This increase will support the roll out of the Roadmap for Service Improvement for Disability Services for Children and Young People through the provision of key roles and trainee placements for Children’s Disability Network Teams (CDNTs).

The demand for Children’s Disability Network Team (CDNT) services is growing every year. The Progressing Disability Services (PDS) Roadmap 2023 – 2026, launched by the HSE in October 2023, focuses on the ongoing development of Children’s Disability Network Team (CDNT) services to meet current and growing demand. Progressing Disability Services is a needs-led model of service, where a child does not require a diagnosis to access services, and Children’s Disability Network Teams (CDNTs) provide a multidisciplinary assessment of individual needs and strengths.

There are currently circa 42,000 children receiving services through the CDNTs.

We know that delivery of services to children is inherently linked to staffing levels within CDNTs and their capacity to deliver these services. The Government has provided funding for additional posts to enhance the capacity of CDNTs in recent years. The HSE has advised there was a net addition of 272 staff in CDNTs in 2024, a 17% increase compared to 2023.

Funding has also been made available in 2025 for Children’s Services to build on existing recruitment initiatives, with funding focusing on various positions across CDNTs (including 20 Senior Therapist posts, 20 Staff Grade posts, 20 Health and Social Care Assistant posts and 15 Clinical Trainee posts).Under the new Programme for Government, we will work to increase staff, train more therapists and enable targeted supports for CDNTs. Through these concentrated efforts, we will build a more robust workforce into the future to meet the growing needs of families and children.

It is also worth noting that in education the Access and Inclusion Model is in place to support children with additional needs to access and meaningfully participate in early learning and childcare by providing universal supports to pre-school settings generally, and targeted supports based on the needs of the individual child, without requiring a diagnosis of disability.

While it is important to state that children do not require a statutory assessment of need to access disability services, the current delays in accessing Assessment of Needs (AONs) as well as therapy services are acknowledged and work is ongoing by the HSE to maximise the capacity of CDNTs to deliver therapy interventions to children and produce AONS.

AON waiting lists are growing as demand outstrips capacity. The HSE advise that they are receiving over 10,000 AON applications annually with demand for AONs more than doubled compared to the 4,700 applications received in 2020.

The Government's decision in May 2024 to finance an Assessment of Need (AON) waiting list initiative targets those families waiting longest for AONs. The HSE advise that by the end of 2024, in the order of 2,479 AONs were commissioned from private providers during the months of June to December at a total cost of circa €8.2m. The Government have continued this Assessment of Need Waiting List Initiative into 2025 with targeted funding of €10m to enable the procurement of private assessments for long-waiting families this year.

The Government has also committed to reforming the Disability Act 2005, in consultation with Stakeholders and this will provide an opportunity to ensure it is aligned with United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) , while also ensuring a more effective and sustainable delivery of statutory AON.