Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 27 January 2026
885. Deputy David Cullinane asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality the number of children waiting for an assessment of need, at the end of 2024 and 2025, by county; the number of assessments conducted in 2024 and in 2025; and the number of applications received in 2024 and in 2025, in tabular form. [6247/26]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe 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 or Mental Health Services.
However, 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 if Need have risen from 4,700 applications in 2020 to over 10,000 in 2024. This demand has continued with 9,570 applications received in the first 9 months of 2025. The impact of this increased demand has contributed to there being over 18,000 applications overdue for completion nationwide at the end of September 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 4,500 reports were completed in the first nine months of 2025 – a 57% increase compared to the same period in 2024.
The HSE provides Assessment of Need data on a quarterly basis, the most recent of which is for Q3 2025. This data is not available on a county level but is available at Local Health Office (LHO), by Community Health Organisation (CHO) for 2024 and by Regional Health Office (RHA) for 2025. The number of applications received, completed assessment reports and number of children waiting for an assessment of need report summarised are provided at LHO/CHO level in Table 1 for 2024 and at LHO/RHA level in Table 2 for 2025 (Q1 to Q3).
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 2025 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.
The provision of an effective and efficient Assessment of Need system continues to be a priority for the Government.
Table 1. AON applications received, completed and overdue end of Q4 2024
Table 2. AON applications received, completed and overdue end of Q3 2025
