Aidan Farrelly (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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351. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if she will engage with the HSE to identify ways to alleviate the recruitment and retention crisis regarding children's disability network teams in north Kildare. [8947/25]

Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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The Programme for Government sets out a clear commitment to increase staffing, train more therapists and prioritise children’s disability teams to deliver supports and services. It must be acknowledged that there are ongoing recruitment challenges in the disability sector, in North Kildare and nationwide, challenges that also affect the wider health and social care sector.

However, while recruitment and retention of staff is a challenge across the sector overall, a significant priority for Government is filling vacancies within the 93 Children’s Disability Network Teams (CDNTs). The HSE has advised there was a significant net addition of 272 staff in CDNTs nationally in the year to October 2024, a 17% increase compared to 2023.

Funding has been made available in 2025 for Children’s Services to build on the existing recruitment initiatives, with funding focusing on various positions across the CDNTs. More broadly, a total of €3.2 billion has been allocated for HSE Disability Services in Budget 2025. This amounts to an 11.6% increase in funding on last year.

The Government is committed to building on this work to date, and further increasing the CDNT workforce in 2025. To that end, there are a number of recruitment and retention measures in place. My department is working with the HSE to introduce specific recruitment and retention incentives for therapists to work in CDNTs, along with a CDNT sponsorship programme with bursaries for fourth year and postgraduate students linked to acceptance of (conditional) job offers.

In addition, placements on CDNTs will continue to be expanded alongside a continued expansion in the number of places in higher education, to expand the pipeline of future therapists.

To optimise recruitment into funded agencies, the HSE are facilitating direct access for funded agencies to existing HSE Health and Social Care Professional panels. This will shorten the recruitment process and will provide direct access to competent and eligible candidates.

Increased funding in Budget 2025 will provide for the recruitment of new posts for the CDNTs.

The Government is committed to engaging with the HSE, families and service providers to ensure each child in North Kildare receives the support and services they require.