Disability Services
Dail Éireann — 2026-07-08
============================================================

Conor D. McGuinness (SF), Waterford

In raising the issues with CDNT services across the south east, in Waterford in particular, I am really concerned about the situation in Dungarvan. The service there is down two whole-time equivalent speech and language therapists, and that is on top of a low base. I am very concerned about waiting lists. There are six children on a waiting list for CDNT services in Dungarvan for over 12 months. The situation is not much better in the Clonmel and Waterford CDNTs which cater to parts of County Waterford. This comes on top of the latest figures I have - though there may have been some movement since I got them - showing an 18% vacancy rate in CDNTs across the State. This means children are being left behind. I am thinking of a young boy in west Waterford who was really coming on with speech and language therapy but who has been left in the lurch. Since I mentioned locally that I would be raising the issue this week, I have been inundated with messages and emails, most of which have already been passed on to the relevant offices as representations. It just shows the issues that exist, despite the best efforts of the people working in the CDNTS, who are really diligent, dedicated and excellent. This is putting huge pressure on families and holding children back in their development and also their wellness.

---

Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted.

Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-07-08/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-14T01:01:07+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-07-08