Conor D McGuinness: CDNT Shortages Leave Children Waiting in Waterford

And in raising the issue with CD&T services across the south east and in Waterford in particular I'm really concerned about the situation in Dungarvan where the service is down two whole time equivalent speech and language therapists and that's on top of a low base. I'm very concerned that waiting lists, there are six children on a waiting list for CD&T services in Dungarvan over 12 months, the situation isn't much better in Clonmel and Waterford CD&Ts that cater to parts of County Waterford and again this comes on the top of the latest figures that I have and there may have been some movement since I got them but an 18% vacancy rate across CD&T right across the state and this means that children are being left behind. I'm thinking of a young boy in West Waterford who was really coming on with speech and language therapy who's been left in the lurch now since I mentioned locally that I will be raising this issue this week. I've been inundated with messages and emails most of which have already been passed on to the relevant offices for as representations but it just shows the issue despite the best efforts of the people working in the CD&T services and they're really diligent, they're really dedicated, they're really excellent, it is putting huge pressure on families and is really holding children back in their development and their wellness. And I'd like to thank all three deputies for raising this really important issue and giving me the opportunity to respond. As Minister of State with responsibility for disability I along with Minister Norma Foley and the government fully recognize the importance of providing timely and appropriate supports for people with disabilities and their families. We are committed to improving access to these services across the country including for children and families in Waterford and the southeast. The HSE's children's disability services team has undergone significant reform and restructuring over the past few years and the core focus of these changes have been to ensure that children with complex needs and their families receive an appropriate and accessible family-centered service. HSE preliminary data for March of 2026 indicates that our CD&T teams are providing services and supports nationally for 45,472 children and strategies and supports for wait-listed children with urgent needs where staffing resources allow. And these are encouraging in terms of the numbers of children receiving support but there's also been encouraging progress in the numbers on our waiting lists reducing. In that same period the national CD&T waiting list has reduced by 50% from 16,522 children in 2023 to 8,200 children at the end of March this year. In the national services plan for this year the HSE is committed to a further 25% reduction in the numbers on our wait lists. The HSE preliminary data to the end of March this year indicates that for Dublin and the southeast health region which is the region I think all three of you represent 6,834 children are on open CD&T caseloads or receiving services and a wait list of 2,078 children remain. The children's disability network team in Waterford and the southeast continue to provide services and supports for children from birth to 18 years of age and I'd like to pay tribute to all of the team all of the staff working in our CD&T teams not just in that region but across Ireland. Like many areas across the country they continue to face recruitment and retention challenges across a range of health and social care professions. Deputy O'Sullivan has pointed out in the northwest and in South Wicklow there's a particular issue with dietician. Deputy McGuinness has pointed out in Dungarvan there's a particular issue in terms of speech and language therapists and as Deputy Newsom-Drennan has pointed out while South Kilkenny there are high vacancy rates, Kilkenny there aren't. So there are areas where vacancy rates are higher and we will be prioritising the teams with the highest vacancy rates when it comes to allocation of additional resources. Services are operating under significant pressure and that's as a result of those vacancy rates and as a result of the demand also and while teams continue to work hard to meet the needs of the children and families workforce shortages can impact the capacity to provide assessments therapies and interventions and can slow things down and ultimately everybody wants that sped up. Unfortunately children on the CD&T team registers whether they're on wait lists or indeed as an open caseload they are likely to be waiting some time in terms of intervention for their support and that is as a direct result of those issues which we're determined to overcome. I want to acknowledge the frustration that this can cause for children and their families. The HSE and the CD&T lead agencies are continuing to work actively and collaboratively to recruit into funded posts to strengthen workforce capacity and to support staff retention across the sector. We've provided funding for additional posts in recent years to enhance the capacity of teams and to reduce waiting lists and most recently 8 million euro was secured in this year's budget to support the recruitment of 150 additional posts for CD&T teams and as I've said priority will be given to the teams with which there are the highest vacancy wait lists. The rest will be read. I see the time is up but the rest can be read in. Thank you for the response and like you want to pay tribute to those who are working in the services they have in many cases with one hand tied behind their back they have managed to clear backlogs arising out of the pandemic and they do their work really to an excellent standard. However there are ongoing issues as we know in terms of recruitment and retention, retention being a key issue but that's not to say that there isn't a capacity elsewhere and for those children whose development, whose ability to live their life fully is being held back I think government needs to look at in the interim at the very least looking at private provision or provision in areas outside of where they live so that at least they can access some modicum of service in the short term. Thank you very much deputies and I fully appreciate not just your frustrations but the frustrations of the parents and the children that you're here representing. I am pleased to be able to say that we are making progress when it comes to recruitment so the HSE reports a 28% increase in staffing levels nationwide from October 2023 to October 2025 that equates to 448 whole-time equivalents now working in HSE disability services and that includes an additional 321 that are specifically in the health and social care professionals and we're doing a lot of work to increase that pipeline to be able to hire from so one example of this is the student sponsorship program which we launched in April of last year and that's already resulted in more than 40 graduates taking up roles in our CDNT teams nationally and this includes six student sponsorships across IHA Carlow, Kilkenny, South Tipperary and IHA Wexford and Waterford so you'll see even in your own areas that this is an initiative that is working to help support your constituents. In addition a dedicated disability workforce strategy is being developed by the HSE this year and that is to meet growing service demands and to address recruitment and retention challenges and while challenges do remain both the government and the HSE and our funded service providers our section 38s and our section 39s remain absolutely committed to improving access to disability services to strengthening workforce capacity and to ensuring that children with disabilities and their families receive the supports that they need.