Ruairí Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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993. To ask the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality her plans for assessing the best means of carrying out assessments of needs and therapies provision for those with autism; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [47558/25]

Ruairí Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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996. To ask the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality the changes she proposes to assessment of needs; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [47561/25]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 993 and 996 together.

This Government recognises that waiting times for Assessment of Need (AON) are too long and have a significant impact on delivering on the needs of children and their families. Both, my Department and the HSE have been working intensively to progress measures to reduce waiting times.

It is important to emphasise that, while children have a right to apply for an AON, they do not need one in order to access health services, including those provided by Primary Care, Children’s Disability Network Teams or Mental Health Services. Nevertheless, demand for AONs has increased significantly in recent years, a reflection of both the increase in population and of families exploring all options for accessing services for their child.

My Department and the HSE are working to address these delays through a number of actions to increase our capacity to deliver AONs. This can be seen through the improvement in the completion of over 4,100 assessments in 2024, an increase of 30% compared to 2023. Recent HSE data shows that this trend is continuing this year with a 58% increase in completed assessments in the first six months of 2025, compared to the same period last year.

This improvement has been achieved by a number of measures, including the Assessment of Need waiting list initiative which funds the procurement of capacity from private providers to deliver assessments, targeting those families waiting longest. Funding of €9.5m has been provided for the initiative this year and HSE data to the end of June 2025 shows that almost 5,000 assessments have been commissioned from private providers since the initiative began in June 2024.

While I remain committed to utilising private capacity to support the completion of AON into the future, we cannot rely on the private sector indefinitely so we must ensure that the public system can meet the clearly growing demand. My Department is working with the HSE to ensure the delivery of actions to support the efficient delivery of Assessments of Need within the public system.

In addition, DCDE has been working intensively with the HSE to identify the appropriate legislative changes, with the intention of bringing forward legislation in the latter half of this year. In conjunction with this legislative reform, my Department and the HSE are as a matter of priority, progressing operational measures to address delays within the process and reduce waiting lists for AON

The provision of an effective and efficient AON system continues to be a priority for the Government.