An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business
Seanad Éireann — 2026-05-26
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Pauline Tully (SF), Cultural and Educational Panel

Ar dtús, déanaim comhghairdeas leis an mbeirt Teachtaí nua, an iarSheanadóir, Seán Kyne, agus Daniel Ennis. Today, I will raise the issue of the autism protocol brought to Cabinet by the Ministers for disability and Health this morning. As a member of the Joint Committee on Autism of the previous Dáil and a member of the all-party parliamentary group on autism, I want more clarity on what exactly this protocol is. It is to be launched today with the HSE. It is a new autism assessment process for children and adults. I welcome anything that will address the significant backlog in assessments of need for children. We are approaching 22,000 at the moment. There is currently no method for adults to be assessed publicly so I also welcome that. However, on reading up about it, I have come across conflicting evidence. In one place, it is stated, "This will replace the current AON process" but, in another, it is stated, "Importantly, these changes will not remove any rights for parents to apply for an Assessment of Need for their child, nor will they alter the statutory sixmonth timeline set out in the Disability Act." How do those two statements marry together?
It is also stated, "Assessment officers will be supported by eleven new teams" throughout the country with each team having four members. There is going to be a psychologist, a speech and language therapist, an occupational therapist and an administrator. At the moment, CDNTs and primary care teams are under extreme pressure to find psychologists, speech and language therapist and occupational therapists so from where will these positions be filled? Are we going to take from existing teams to fill these positions? The problem with the current teams and the primary care teams is that there are not sufficient numbers of staff to deal with the level of demand. We are seeing more and more children waiting for assessments or for services because of this lack of staff. A few years ago, the early intervention teams and the child development teams were replaced by the CDNTs and that ended up with children being missed, falling through the cracks and not being on any list for services.
There is also reference to "The introduction of an additional management grade overseeing Assessments of need". The last thing we need is more bureaucracy and more managers within the HSE. We need front-line staff within these teams and within our acute hospitals. We do not need more managerial grades. I want to ensure these teams will work to address the backlog because, while I read that "Children do not need an Assessment of Need report to get access to services", I find that children are not getting services without one. They are not getting into special schools or special classes without an assessment of need.
How will all of this be addressed? Even those children who have the assessment of need carried out are not getting the services. I would welcome a more in-depth discussion on the protocol.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-05-26/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:59+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-05-26