Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Solidarity)
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631. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if she is aware of the extremely long waiting times children are facing when dealing with their assessment of needs, which restricts their access to vital services; if she will instruct her Department to take all necessary steps to ensure waiting times are shortened; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [13601/25]

Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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It is important to note that children do not require an Assessment of Need as defined by the Disability Act (2005) in order to access a CDNT or Primary Care service. They can be referred by a healthcare professional or parent/carer to the CDNT for children with complex needs as a result of their disability, or to Primary Care for children with non-complex needs.

The demand for AONs has increased significantly in recent years. It is a reflection of both the increase in population and of families exploring all options for accessing services for their child.

Under the 2025 Programme for Government – “Securing Ireland’s Future”, this Government is committed to renewing efforts in order to enhance services to better support the needs of children with disabilities in Ireland.

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.

Under the new Programme for Government we will:

• Continue to increase the number of places in higher education in order to expand the pipeline of future therapists;
• Introduce specific recruitment and retention incentives for therapists to work on CDNTs, along with a CDNT sponsorship programme with bursaries for fourth year and postgrad students linked to acceptance of (conditional) job offers;
• Continue to expand placements on CDNTs;
• Recruit more therapists into primary care, in order to meet the needs of the vast majority of children with disabilities that avail of mainstream services rather than specialist (CDNT) services.