Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 11 February 2026
272. Deputy Joanna Byrne asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality the number of children in County Louth waiting for an assessment of need at the latest available point in 2024 and 2025; the number of assessments conducted in 2024 and year-to-date in 2026; and the number of applications received in those periods, in tabular form. [10597/26]
View answer273. Deputy Joanna Byrne asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality the number of children waiting for Children’s Disability Network Team services in County Louth, at the latest available point in 2025, by team and service type, in tabular form. [10598/26]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 272 and 273 together.
The delivery of an effective, efficient Assessment of Need system is a priority for the Government. There has been intensive work by the Department of Children, Disability and Equality and the HSE to address delays in the provision of Assessments of Need.
Under the Disability Act, an Assessment of Need is an assessment process carried out by the HSE where a person is of the opinion that he/she may have a disability, for anyone born after 1st June 2002. It first establishes whether the person has a disability (as defined within the Act). It then identifies the health and education needs of the person with a disability and the services required to meet those needs.
It is important to note that children do not require an Assessment of Need to access health services, including Primary Care, Children’s Disability Network Teams (CDNT) or Mental Health Services. They can be referred by a healthcare professional, parent/carer to a CDNT for children with complex needs, or to Primary Care for children with less complex needs.
The demand for Assessments of Need has increased significantly in recent years, reflecting both the increase in population and the number of families exploring all options to access services for their child. Applications for Assessment of Need have risen from 4,700 applications in 2020 to over 13,000 applications received in 2025. The impact of this increased demand has contributed to there being over 20,200 applications overdue for completion nationwide at the end of 2025 according to the most recently available HSE data.
More positively, there has been continued improvement in the number of completed assessment of need reports. Over 5,900 reports were completed in 2025 – a 43% increase compared to the same period in 2024.
The HSE do not provide data on a county basis, however data is provided by Regional Health Area (RHA) and Local Health Office (LHO). While we do not yet have data for 2026, the data requested for the Louth LHO is as follows:
|
No. of AON applications received 2025 |
659 |
|
No. of AON applications received 2024 |
635 |
|
Total completed 2025 |
219 |
|
Total completed 2024 |
131 |
|
Total overdue of Q4 2025 |
1043 |
|
Total overdue of Q4 2024 |
617 |
There has been a noted improvement in the number of Assessment of Need reports completed in Louth LHO in 2025 compared to 2024, with a 67% increase on the previous year.
In December 2025, Government announced a series of reforms to the Assessment of Need process which will make the process more effective and efficient for children and families. Over time, this should lead to a reduction in the waiting time to receive an assessment.
This reform includes changes to Part 2 of the Disability Act, 2005, which provides for Assessments of Need. The General Scheme of the Disability (Amendment) Bill 2026 which outlines these proposed changes was approved by Government on 9 December and will be published on the Department’s website shortly.
Any proposed legislative changes will not remove any rights for parents to apply for an Assessment of Need for their child, nor will they alter the statutory six-month timeline set out in the Disability Act.
Other aspects of the reform include:
• The development of statutory guidelines to ensure that Assessments of Need focus on identifying a child’s needs, engaging in more intensive assessments only where required to identify need. This should help reduce delays and allow therapists to spend more time delivering services.
• The establishment by the HSE of eleven new teams, initially, to support HSE assessment processes, including Assessments of Need. Each team will include a psychologist, a speech and language therapist, an occupational therapist, and an administrator, providing clinical guidance throughout the process.
Looking at the Children’s Disability Network Teams (CDNTs), these teams provide therapeutic services to children with complex needs arising from their disability.
There are two CDNT teams operating in County Louth: CDNT 1 (Dundalk North Louth) and CDNT 3 (Drogheda South Louth).
In line with best practice guidelines, CDNTs use an interdisciplinary service model for assessment and intervention and therefore, do not collect activity data by individual discipline (such as SLT, OT and Physiotherapy).
The most recent data provided by the HSE at individual CDNT level to the end of November 2025 shows that there were 716 children being supported by the Dundalk CDNT with 37 children on the waiting list and 913 children being supported by the Drogheda CDNT with 266 on the waiting list. It should be noted that, in some areas, supports may be provided to children and families who are on CDNT waiting lists. These supports can include provision of universal and targeted webinars, workshops, handouts and online materials for commonly identified topics.
