Disability (Amendment) Bill 2026: Second Stage Dail Éireann — 2026-09-23 ============================================================ Malcolm Byrne (FF), Wicklow-Wexford I share the Minister's ambition that this should be the best country in the world in which to be a child. That should apply to every child and they should be able to access whatever services are needed as quickly as possible. I disagree with some of the arguments being put forward about a Government effort to massage figures. If we look at the figures, which are widely available, the scale of need has grown. When the current model for assessment of need applications first opened in 2008, there were 2,535 applications. There were 13,186 last year. We are seeing a dramatic increase in the number of applications. It is important to acknowledge, particularly in work done by the Department of further and higher education, the increase in the number of places on medicine and allied related courses. In 2025, there was a total of 320 additional places in occupational therapy, speech and language therapy and dietetics, and an extra 141 places on third level courses in those areas starting in the 2026-27 year. The Minister has been open and honest in acknowledging the scale of the challenge. I also welcome Government moves in providing additional higher education course places in these specific areas. That said, like all of my colleagues, I am concerned about how long it is taking to access services. There should be no wrong door. There should be a possibility that a child in need of an assessment has it done as quickly as possible and that they can have access to the necessary services. I was concerned when I found out at the end of last year that for County Wexford there were 261 assessments of need overdue for completion, based on the Department's own figures. In other words, those application assessments had not been completed within six months. There were 261 in Wexford, but in County Wicklow it was 1,194. Those statistics are individuals. They are families, as Deputy Cahill talked about. It is all-embracing, not just for the individual young child or young person concerned, but for their whole family. It is something that is of deep concern. We need to develop and provide certainty to all of the CDNT teams around the country and ensure they have access to a psychologist, a speech and language therapist, an occupational therapist and the necessary admin support to do their work. That is not the case around the country and many of the CDNT teams are not working in ideal conditions. In that regard, I instance the one in my home town of Gorey, where there has been a continued problem because where the CDNT is operating at present is not up to scratch for a modern clinical team. The intention was to move it to the new Gorey primary care centre whenever it was built. However, the HSE has taken 16 years before it made any decision with regard to that primary care centre. I am appealing to the Minister. Part of the problem with some of the decisions being made is that many areas of Government are not talking to each other. People working in the CDNT are not necessarily engaging as fully as they should with the HSE. There is often a similar challenge with regard to CAMHS. Many of these organisations are operating in silos. I also touch on an issue I have raised before about CORU and the recognition of overseas qualifications. It is completely bizarre that people are able to acquire good qualifications in medicine and medical-related areas, including speech and language and occupational therapy, but CORU delays their recognition for month after month. We have vacancies that need to be filled. If people want to come into this country to work in those specific areas, we need to fast-track recognition of their qualifications. It should not be a case that a regulatory agency is holding up the recognition of those qualifications. It is absolutely essential that we place far more emphasis on school-based therapy services to provide as many supports as possible within schools in all of our communities. When Anne Rabbitte was Minister of State with responsibility for disability, there had been a difficulty with a special school in County Wexford about the appointment of a speech and language therapist and occupational therapist. They had been back and forth with the HSE. In fairness to the then Minister of State, she told the special school to go ahead and hire them and she would make sure the HSE paid them the money. There needs to be far more partnership with some schools to ensure that what we have is a child-centred approach in the delivery of all of these services. I know the Minister is deeply committed on a personal level to reform this and to ensure that assessments of need happen as quickly as possible. However, it is not just about the assessment, but that the necessary support services are put in place. I believe we need to address the costs through some form of cost-of-disability payment in the budget, as has been outlined. I come back to my central point. We want this to be the best country in the world in which to be a child. There should be no wrong door for any child or their family when it comes to seeking the supports they need. I support the moves being made in this legislation, but it is how it will be implemented and the impact it will have that will make a real difference. --- 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/2026-09-23/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-09-28T05:50:49+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-09-23