Peter Roche (Galway East, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

27. To ask the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality the CDNTs with the longest average waiting times for first contact commencement of therapy; the actions being taken to address these geographic inequities, particularly for children in rural and under-served areas; whether targeted measures such as mobile clinics, cross-team redeployment, or temporary therapy panels are being implemented to ensure parity of access nationally; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [50221/25]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

This Government and I recognise the importance of early intervention for children with disabilities and ensuring they receive the right services at the right time.

Under the Programme for Government, the Government is committed to ensuring children and their families who need early intervention and therapy input can access that support in a timely way.

The key vehicle for change and improvement is the Roadmap for Service Improvement for Disability Services for Children and Young People. The implementation of this roadmap is well under way and will continue until 2026.

The Roadmap contains an important set of actions that, collectively, will enhance children’s disability services in Ireland.

They include significant measures to integrate and improve access to services, expand the workforce and advance better communication and engagement with families.

There are 93 Children’s Disability Network Teams aligned to 96 Community Healthcare Networks across the country, are providing services and supports for children aged from birth to 18 years of age.

I am informed by the HSE that areas including Dublin and the Mid West region have challenges with higher numbers of children on the Children's Disability Network Teams waiting list.

The HSE also inform me that data on the longest average waiting times for first commencement of therapy with specific Children's Disability Network Teams is not available.

Children’s Disability Network Teams currently provide services and supports for nearly 45,000 children with complex needs.

Unfortunately, there are also almost 11,000 children waiting for an initial contact from a Children's Disability Network Team.

A significant focus of the Government is filling vacant posts within the 93 Children's Disability Network Teams.

HSE data from April 2025 shows there has been a nationwide increase of 26% in Children's Disability Network Team staffing levels since October 2023.

Most significantly, the Children's Disability Network Teams national vacancy rate has reduced from 29% in 2023 to 18% in 2025 - a reduction of 11 percentage points.

The HSE have put in place strategies and supports in place for urgent cases on the waiting list, such as 1,052 children (and/or their parents) who are on the CDNT waiting list participated in one or more individual and/or group intervention appointments during August 2025.

A dedicated Disability Workforce Strategy is being developed in 2025 to meet growing service demands and address recruitment and retention challenges across specialist disability services.

The HSE are facilitating direct access for funded agencies to existing health and social care professional panels, which will shorten the recruitment process.

My Department is working with the HSE to seek to introduce specific recruitment and retention incentives for therapists to work in Children's Disability Network Teams.

Where necessary and possible, cross cover or temporary redeployment to address operational gaps, optimise risk mitigation and ensure equitable service delivery across the area is in place. This can be challenging to implement, increasing staff burnout and challenging retention.

My Department continues to work with the HSE to examine all avenues to improve access to services through the Roadmap and will continue to consider opportunities for innovative practice.