Emer Higgins

I join the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste, the Minister for justice and many other Ministers in offering a sincere apology to the survivors of Bill Kenneally's abuse. Today, above all else, my thoughts are with the victims and survivors. Many of them are with us in the Gallery today. Thank you for being here. I can only imagine the strength it must take to sit in this Chamber and to hear one of the darke…

I ask the Deputy to relay my condolences to his constituent at this very difficult time. As Minister of State with responsibility for disability, we are doing a huge amount of work to increase residential and indeed respite placements across the country. Just this week, the HSE announced funding for alternative respite to take place through the summer months. The Deputy's particular query about c…

I thank Deputy O'Donoghue for raising this issue and offering me the opportunity to respond on behalf of the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality, Deputy Norma Foley. The Department is conscious that the cost of early learning and childcare and organised summer activities can present financial challenges for families, particularly those on lower incomes. Through a range of measures, the …

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. As I said, childcare is a priority for the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality and the Government as a whole. The Deputy is specifically referring to summer camps and recreational activities outside the NCS. Summer camps which provide early years service, that is, summer camps for children under six years of age, are considered an early years s…

I thank all three Deputies for raising this really important issue and giving me the opportunity to respond. As the Minister of State with responsibility for disability, I, along with the Minister, Deputy Foley, and the Government, fully recognise the importance of providing timely and appropriate supports for people with disabilities and their families. We are committed to improving access to the…

I thank the Deputies very much. I fully appreciate not just their frustrations but those of the parents and children they are here representing. I am pleased to be able to say that we are making progress when it comes to recruitment. The HSE reported a 28% increase in staffing levels nationwide from October 2023 to October 2025. That equates to 448 whole-time equivalents now working in HSE disabil…

I thank all Deputies for their passionate contributions on what is a very important topic. The issues highlighted are very important but we all share a common objective of ensuring people with disabilities receive timely and appropriate specialist services and placements when they need them. While there may be different views on the measures needed to achieve that objective, ultimately we are all …

I am not saying that.

I welcome the opportunity to conclude this important debate on the Minister's behalf and reflect on the range of perspectives that have been shared across the House. As the Minister set out in her opening remarks, there are three central elements that guide the programme for Government's commitment to early learning and childcare. First, while significant progress has been made, we recognise that …

I want to start by wishing everybody a really happy Pride and a really happy Pride month, especially those who are heading out to celebrate this weekend. Hopefully, the weather stays as fabulous as it has been the past couple of days for the Dublin Pride parade. Every year that I attend the Dublin Pride parade, I am struck by the sense of community, inclusion, fun, colour, energy and positivity. I…

I thank the Deputy for this question. On 26 May, the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality, Deputy Foley and I, along with the Minister for Health, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, and the HSE were pleased to launch the new autism assessment and intervention pathway protocol - the autism protocol. The new protocol represents an important step in ensuring that children and adults have access to a…

Sure. I understand.

To be clear on the timelines, since the Deputy specifically asked, this is now launched. It will be rolled out in quarter 3 of this year. Right now, we are working with teams across the country to upskill and to train them on this new system of autism protocol and pathways. It is expected that when it is fully rolled out, each of the 20 integrated health areas will have one established inreach tea…

I agree with much of what the Deputy says. This is an attempt to provide alternative means for assessments. There will be three tiers in this autism assessment and intervention pathway protocol. Tier 1 is for an assessment with clear presentations of autism, tier 2 is a more detailed assessment for unclear causes using structured tools and input from multiple professionals, and tier 3 is an assess…

The Government is committed to ensuring that children with disabilities and their families who need early intervention and therapy input can access that support in a timely way. That commitment is reflected in the sizeable investment in disability services. In this year's budget alone, more than €3.8 billion has been allocated for disability services, which is an increase of €1.8 billion since 202…

In Balbriggan, 81% of posts are filled but the figure for Swords is only 52%. That is why we are doing so much work on our recruitment and retention strategies. I pay tribute to the staff in both CDNTs for the huge progress they have made. In recent years, there has been a significant increase in the total number of CDNTs across the HSE Dublin and North East region, which includes north-west Dubli…

Now that we have a single point of access for the HSE, that will have a huge impact and it will mean that there will be no wrong door. If a child goes to primary care and should be on a CDNT list or vice versa, they will not be put back to the start of the list again. That is a whole-of-HSE approach. The strategy we are working on at the moment is our HSE resourcing strategy. This will be about ma…

As the Deputy will be aware, on 26 May, the HSE launched the new autism assessment and intervention pathway protocol, or the autism protocol. Once implemented, it will apply to all HSE and HSE-funded providers, as well as private providers. I am delighted that extensive collaboration by Government underpinned the development of the autism protocol. My Department and I remain committed to ongoing e…

Absolutely. I am completely happy to say that to the Deputy. As she said in her opening remarks, the success of this depends on people's lived experience. That is exactly what we have used to help shape it. We also had expert input from a clinical advisory group as well as that assessment and pathways working group within the service improvement programme board for the autistic community. That was…

Absolutely. This process is all about families, children and ensuring that we have appropriate and faster access to the most appropriate clinical decisions. This is also in response to the fact that 40% of assessments, of children who are going through assessments of need, are being diagnosed as autistic. As a result of that, through five years of collaboration, hard work and clinical expertise, t…

The Deputy is absolutely correct. The delivery of an effective and efficient assessment of need system is a priority for the Government. The Department and the HSE are working intensively to address delays in the provision of assessments of need to children and their families. It is important to reiterate that children do not require an assessment of need report to access health services, such as …

The Deputy is right; the demand is increasing year on year. It has increased quite exponentially in the last five years. As a result, it has been difficult for us to keep up with demand. Our CDNTs around the country do absolutely incredible work not just with regard to assessments of need, but also, importantly, in the delivery of therapies. It is those interventions that parents and children want…

The Government is absolutely committed to ensuring that this is dealt with in a comprehensive way. Part of our response will be a series of improvements to the assessment of need process to make it more efficient and effective for children and families. Over time, this will lead to a reduction in the waiting time to receive an assessment of need. I thank the Deputy for his work on the Committee on…

I am taking this debate on behalf of my colleague, the Minister for Health, Deputy Jennifer Carroll MacNeill, who unfortunately is unable to be here this evening as she is attending a meeting of EU heath ministers in Luxembourg. I assure the House she would have been here otherwise and I am sure that Members will appreciate that it just was not possible for her to be here this evening. I have spok…

I move: That, notwithstanding anything in the Order of the Dáil of 5th February, 2025, setting out the rota in which Questions to members of the Government are to be asked, Questions for oral answer following those next set down to the Minister for Climate, Energy and the Environment shall be set down to Ministers in the following temporary sequence: Minister for Culture, Communications and Spor…