The Government and I recognise the importance of early intervention for children with disabilities and ensuring they receive the right services at the right time. For children with complex needs, these services are delivered through the Children’s Disability Network Teams (CDNTs) across the country.
In 2025 CDNTs will provide supports and services to almost 45,000 children with complex needs. This is an increase of some 2,000 children in receipt of services at the end of December 2024.
The number of children on waiting lists for Children’s Disability Network Teams has fallen from nearly 13,000 at the end of 2024 to just over 10,000 at the end of September 2025, a reduction of 21%.
The HSE have advised the Department that of the 14 Children’s Disability Network Teams in HSE South West, a total of 11 provide services in Cork city and county, with CDNT4 covering Northwest Cork.
Children’s Disability Network Teams deliver an interdisciplinary model of care. As such they do not maintain waiting lists for individual disciplines. Rather, a wait list is maintained for those awaiting access to the Initial Contact pathway.
445 children are waiting for an initial contact in Cork Children’s Disability Network Teams, with 28 of those in Cork Northwest. No child in Cork Northwest is waiting more than 12 months for an initial contact from the Children’s Disability Network Team.
The approved number of Wholetime Equivalent posts for the Cork area at the end of November 2025 was 309.79. Of these posts 271.72 were filled, giving an overall staffing rate across Cork Children’s Disability Network Teams of 88%. In Cork Northwest, at the end of November 2025 31.63 of 33.13 approved posts were filled, with 95% of the posts filled.
Assessments are an integral part of the work carried out by Children’s Disability Network Teams as part of the continuum supports provided to children. Assessments are also carried out through the Assessment of Need process. To the end of September 2025 received 1,497 applications for assessment of need were received within the Cork Local Health Offices (LHO), 760 Assessment of Need reports have been completed and 1473 applications are overdue for completion.
The Government acknowledges current delays in accessing interventions and work is ongoing by the HSE to maximise the capacity of Children’s Disability Network Teams via recruitment campaigns and other measures.
Government has made funding available in 2025 for children’s services to build on existing recruitment initiatives, focusing on various positions across Children’s Disability Network Teams.
A further €8 million has been secured in Budget 2026 to allow for the recruitment of around 150 staff to Children’s Disability Network Teams.
This funding will enhance access to services for children with complex disabilities. The posts will span a range of professional disciplines, aligned with the needs identified by the Children’s Disability Network Teams. A national workforce census carried out in October 2025 will inform the breakdown of these posts
Recruitment and retention of Health and Social Care Professionals is the most significant challenge, and work is ongoing to increase staffing levels.
Student placements on Children’s Disability Network Teams will continue to be expanded, alongside a continued growth in the number of places in higher education, to develop the pipeline of future therapists.
There are also initiatives including engaging with the employment market and students to improve the perception and increase interest in working in this area.
As a result of these and other efforts, the Children’s Disability Network Team workforce has grown by 26% from 1,594 in October 2023 to 2,009 Whole Time Equivalents in April 2025. Funding from Budget 2026 will further grow this number.
This represents an overall growth since October 2023 of 414 Whole Time Equivalents. This means the vacancy rate has reduced by 11 percentage points from 29% to 18% during that period. This is the lowest vacancy rate since October 2021.
Notwithstanding the current challenges, both the Government and the HSE remain committed to the delivery of appropriate services for children with disabilities and their families to continue advancing services that meet their needs.
