Disability Services
Dail Éireann — 2025-12-18
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Maurice Quinlivan (SF), Limerick City

Last week's announcement was an attempt to shift responsibility to schools and mask the failure overseen by this and previous Governments.
However, I do note that each team will include a psychologist, a speech and language therapist, an occupational therapist and an administrator. Where will they come from? Is it not a better approach to have a proper recruitment campaign and try to access the resources that exist that we have not been able to harness so far? The change will not remove any rights for parents to apply for an assessment of need for their children nor will it alter their statutory six month-timeframe in the Disability Act. It does not explain how the Government will achieve this legal obligation of accessing an assessment of need within a six-month period. Will the Minister of State advise how this change will assist these children who are waiting for 27 months or more for an assessment? These children need their assessments and they need to have them completed within the six-month period. What we and the children need to see is an urgent workforce plan to recruit and, more importantly, to retain the staff we have already to deliver this important service without breaching the rights of these children. Every month and every single day that an assessment is delayed impacts children.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2025-12-18/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:29+00:00
Sitting date: 2025-12-18