Erin McGreehan (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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152. To ask the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality the number of children in County Louth that have had assessments of need outsourced by the HSE to private providers to date in 2025; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [61455/25]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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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. To address this, the current Programme for Government includes a clear commitment to support families who are waiting for an AON and to ensure children and their families can access the supports they need.

It is important to emphasise that, while children have a right to apply for an AON, they do not need one 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 the number of families exploring all options for accessing services for their child.

Both this Department and the HSE are committed to reducing the timeframes for assessment and have been working intensively to progress measures to achieve this.

Over the past two years, there has been a noted improvement in the number of completed Assessments with over 4,100 completed in 2024, an increase of 30% compared to 2023. Recent HSE data shows that this trend is continuing this year with a 57% increase in completed assessments in the first six months of the year, compared to the same period last year. This reflected in the numbers for the Louth Local Health Area, where completed assessments for the first nine months of the year are already higher than the total number completed in 2024.

This has been achieved by a number of measures, including the Assessment of Need Targeted Waitlist Initiative. The Initiative targets those families waiting longest for Assessments of Need, with the HSE reimbursing clinicians directly through the procurement of capacity from approved private providers. Recent HSE data shows that over 6,300 clinical assessments have been commissioned from private providers since the Initiative started in June 2024. Budget 2026 provides for the continuation of this Initiative next year with €20 million provided for the delivery of some 6,000 clinical assessments.

Louth specific data has been requested from the HSE at a Local Health Area level, and will be forwarded to the Deputy in writing, when available.

While it is important to use private capacity to support the completion of Assessments of Need into 2026, we cannot rely on the private sector indefinitely and we must ensure that the public system can meet the clearly growing demand. This 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. This includes improved training for staff involved in the delivery of AONs, additional administrative supports, and changes to processes where necessary to ensure an efficient and effective system.

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