Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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831. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if she will confirm receipt of correspondence from a person (details supplied), and what actions she will take. [17252/25]

Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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The HSE have confirmed that the referral for the child in question was received in January this year and the child is currently on a waiting list for therapies.

The Government and Health Service Executive (HSE) is fully committed to delivering real and tangible solutions to enhance services to better support children with disabilities in Ireland.

The Progressing Disability Services (PDS) Roadmap 2023 – 2026, focuses on the ongoing development of Children’s Disability Network Team services to meet current and growing demand.

While recruitment and retention of staff is a challenge across the sector overall, a significant focus of the Government is filling vacant posts within the 93 CDNTs who are currently providing supports for over 43,000 children.

The Annual CDNT Workforce survey indicates that the CDNT workforce has grown to 1,866 Whole Time Equivalents (WTE). This represents a year-on-year growth of 17% from October 2023 figures, equating to an additional 272 WTE in the workforce.

Ongoing Recruitment and Retention measures across children’s disability services include the following:

• DCEDIY will work with the HSE to seek 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 postgrad students linked to acceptance of (conditional) job offers.
• The HSE are facilitating direct access for funded agencies to existing HSE HSCP panels which will shorten the recruitment process and will provide direct access to competent and eligible candidates.
• 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.
• The rollout of Regional Assessment Hubs will see 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.

This matter remains an extremely high priority for this Government, for senior leadership within the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth and the HSE.