Disabilities Assessments
Dail Éireann — 2026-09-17
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Emer Higgins (FG), Dublin Mid-West

With all due respect to my predecessors and the Minister's, while the Deputy may have heard what plans were coming down the tracks, what he is hearing from us is what plans are happening, what changes are happening and what reforms we are delivering. This week the Minister, Deputy Foley, and I brought to Cabinet legislation that will make it more efficient, more effective and will provide standardised guidelines for the entire assessment of need process. That will be in this House for debate next week.
From a policy perspective, the HSE has developed, launched and is about to implement two very significant changes. One is the single point of access, which means there will be no wrong door for any child. I hear this all the time from parents. Someone is on a waiting list for primary care or a CDNT, gets to the top of the list and is told they are on the wrong list. That will be no more. That is a significant change for families. Also, the autism protocol and pathways initiative is being launched. From a budgetary perspective, we are building capacity within our teams. The workforce in disability has increased by 22% in five years and we are investing in the wait list initiative to reduce the number of children in Cavan-Monaghan and across the country who are waiting on an assessment of need. These are real changes that will deliver for children and families. I appreciate it will not happen overnight but these reforms are needed to change the situation for those children and their families.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-09-17/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-28T05:50:48+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-09-17