Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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2527. To ask the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality the estimated cost of prioritising 460 people under 65 with a disability to move from family homes, congregated settings and nursing homes into the community. [44331/25]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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As this question refers to service matters, I have asked the Health Service Executive (HSE) to respond to the Deputy directly.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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2528. To ask the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality the estimated cost of transitioning all under 65s with a disability residential services need out of nursing homes and into community-based residential services. [44332/25]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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As this question refers to service matters, I have asked the Health Service Executive (HSE) to respond to the Deputy directly.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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2529. To ask the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality to estimate the level of need for new disability residential service places in 2026; and the estimated costs of providing same. [44333/25]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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Increasing the provision of disability residential services is a key priority area for this Government and the HSE, and there has been significant investment in residential services over the course of the last number of years.

In Budget 2025, a total of €3.2 billion was allocated for HSE Disability Services. This amounts to an increase of 11.5% in funding, some €333m, on funding provided in 2024.

Specialist Disability Residential services make up the largest part of the Disability funding disbursed by the HSE, approximately 60% of the total budget.

Budget 2025 provided €107m to residential services for the development of new placements. €79m of this to meet the incremental cost of new residential services provided in 2024 and €28m is additional funding for new placements in 2025.

Consideration of specialist disability service and funding requirements for Budget 2026 is currently ongoing. The Department of Children, Disability and Equality will be engaging with the Department of Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation and with the Health Service Executive during the process.

Confirmation and further information on funding to be provided in Budget 2026 will be made public following the announcement of the Budget, later this year.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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2530. To ask the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality to estimate the level of need for new disability respite service places in 2026; and the estimated costs of providing same. [44334/25]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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Increasing the provision of respite services is a key priority area for this Government and the HSE, and there has been significant investment in respite services over the course of the last number of years.

In Budget 2025, a total of €3.2 billion was allocated for HSE Disability Services. Spending on respite services comprises approximately 4% of this overall budget. In 2025, ELS funding of €14m was provided to cover demographic growth and the full year cost of measures commenced in 2024.

Consideration of specialist disability service and funding requirements for Budget 2026 is currently ongoing. The Department of Children, Disability and Equality will be engaging with the Department of Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation and with the Health Service Executive during the process.

Confirmation and further information on funding to be provided in Budget 2026 will be made public following the announcement of the Budget, later this year.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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2531. To ask the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality to estimate the level of need for new disability day service places in 2026; and the estimated costs of providing same. [44335/25]

Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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As this question refers to service matters, I have asked the Health Service Executive (HSE) to respond to the Deputy directly, as soon as possible.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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2532. To ask the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality to estimate the level of need for new disability children’s services places in 2026; and the estimated costs of providing same. [44336/25]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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I understand from a clarification that this matter relates to Children's Disability Network Teams. Given the structure of those teams and their work, I am presuming this relates to posts.

The multidisciplinary Children's Disability Network Teams include therapists, social workers, nurses, and administrative staff who work collaboratively to provide comprehensive and individualised support to all children aged from birth to 18 years living in the network catchment area, who have complex needs arising from a disability.

From a survey in April 2025 by the HSE, the number of filled whole time equivalent posts is 2009 leading to a vacancy rate of 18%, reflecting a decrease from the 29% reported in October 2023. The increase in staffing points to intensive recruitment efforts by the Health Regions and Lead Agencies in bringing their workforce closer to the funded levels.

In 2025 €186m is available to fill the 2,454 funded whole time equivalents.

In addition, Budget 2025 provided for €5.6m for 75 whole time equivalents, to be allocated across CDNTs during 2025.

With regard to 2026, the Disability Action Plan includes 600 extra whole time equivalents for Children’s Disability Network Teams for the period 2024-2026 to address vacant posts, build capacity, deliver timely access to early intervention and multidisciplinary supports, and ensure continuity of services. The cost of the additional 600 WTE is €44.8m.

There is no breakdown by year for 2026 as yet. The Health Service Executive (HSE) commissioned the National Disability Authority (NDA) to review the Children’s Disability Network Teams (CDNT) service model. This review is taking place in phases: part 1 is a review of the CDNT Service Model and is currently underway; Part 2 will commence in the coming months and aims to determine the optimal staffing for CDNTs.

In the context of numbers of children, there were 11,938 children were waitlisted for CDNT services on March 31st, reduced by 1,200 from 13,138 on the same day last year. This is in the context of increasing numbers of children being referred. 2,612 new children were referred to CDNTs, an increase of 7.3% over the same quarter in 2024.