Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation
Dail Éireann — 2026-05-27
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Micheál Martin (FF), Cork South-Central

I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue. I know he has been advocating strongly on behalf of children and families in Cavan-Monaghan. Those counties have been facing some of the longest waits in the country for children's therapies. The root cause of that has been a chronic staffing deficit. At the Deputy's instigation, the Minister, Deputy Foley, visited the region recently and acknowledged directly that the system was not serving children and families as it should. However, there is a national recruitment campaign. Since 2020, about 40 therapists have been recruited in Cavan and Monaghan, bringing the total to 117. The national children's disability network team, CDNT, recruitment campaign attracted over 500 applications. Appointments are actively being progressed and staffing has increased by 28% nationally. That is about 448 additional whole-time equivalents. Waiting lists are coming down. The Minister is also changing the modus operandi in terms of how things will be done.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-05-27/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-14T01:01:04+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-05-27