Disability Services
Dail Éireann — 2026-02-19
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Norma Foley (FF), Kerry

Ar an gcéad dul síos, tá sé mar aidhm agam féin agus ag an Roinn áiseanna agus seirbhísí a chur chun cinn, agus tá níos mó airgid againn inniu ná mar a bhí riamh chun é sin a dhéanamh.
The primary aim and objective of this Government and this Department is to ensure that we have the funding in place. We have a significant increase in funding this year - greater than we have ever had - to provide the services Deputy Heneghan referenced. I do not know the specifics of the case he referenced here as it is an individual case, but I am happy to take the details from him later and to revert to him. We have €3.8 billion available to us now, which is a €1.8 billion increase since 2020. It will not solve all of the issues; money does not always solve the issues. It is a combination of different things.
I appreciate the points Deputy Ó Murchú raised around the assessment of need. He knows that there work is under way to advance the assessment and to streamline the service to make it more accessible to people. There is also the single point of contact and the HSE's autism protocol. A total of 45% of all cases in the first nine months of last year had an autism diagnosis. This separate pathway under the HSE will be helpful as well.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-02-19/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:40+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-02-19