There are more than 11,000 children with disabilities waiting for an assessment of needs to be completed. As the Taoiseach knows, they are legally entitled to that assessment within six months, yet over the past decade we have seen a frightening lack of progress from Government in getting children access to their assessment on time. A parliamentary question response to my colleague, Deputy David Cullinane, shows that fewer children had an assessment of needs completed in 2023 than almost ten years ago in 2014. Waiting lists have ballooned and capacity has flatlined.

When the Taoiseach became Minister for Health there were 4,000 children awaiting completed assessments but by the time he finished, that had risen to 5,000. Now, four years later, on his watch as Taoiseach, that figure has more than doubled. This figure of 11,000 does not count the thousands of children who were subjected to illegal, substandard assessments under a shortcut procedure devised during the Taoiseach's time as Minister for Health. As he knows, that procedure was subsequently struck down by the High Court. Two years on and the Government still does not have a plan to stop the State from breaking the law by ensuring that children get their assessment of needs within six months, as is their legal right. The therapists needed to meet demand have not been hired and persisting pay inequality between the HSE and section 39 organisations means that many children's disability network teams simply cannot retain experienced staff. This has serious consequences. A child needs a completed assessment of needs to access an appropriate school place and to get the right mix of healthcare, social care and educational supports. For many guardians, parents and carers, the assessment is needed to access social protection supports.

The excruciating wait and uncertainty causes real distress for children and their parents. Jaden from Dublin is one of these children. He is five years old. Jaden has an intellectual disability, epilepsy, autism and requires a feeding tube. He is due to start primary school next September but his mother Ciara was told by his psychologist that Jaden must have a completed assessment before starting. She sent off the assessment of needs form last January.

That is ten months ago and still she has heard nothing back. Ciara says she is now very worried that Jaden will not be able to start school on time and that he will not get the supports he needs to progress to fulfil his potential. This is a really horrible situation for any child or any parent.

Tá méadú 11,000 ar líon na bpáistí atá míchumas orthu atá ag fanacht ar mheasúnú riachtanais comhlánaithe faoin Rialtas seo. Ní mór don Rialtas seo anois gníomhú dáiríre a dhéanamh chun cearta dlíthiúla na bpáistí seo a chosaint.

Delayed assessments mean parents not having full information, families going unsupported and delayed development for children. I am asking three things of the Taoiseach. First, hire the therapists who are needed; second, resolve the pay inequality between different children's disability network teams; and, finally, please set a date for meeting the legal rights of these children to ensure that no child waits longer than six months for their assessment of needs to be completed.

I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue, an issue that I know is close to all our hearts and indeed all our priorities. I note the Sinn Féin Private Members' motion on the matter this week, which applies an appropriate degree of focus to this very important issue. We have taken a number of steps in recent weeks alone to try to make significant progress in the lives of children with a disability. We launched a new autism innovation strategy. We commenced the restoration of in-school therapy supports for children in special schools. The Deputy spoke about Jaden and while I do not know all of Jaden's needs, it is important that we put the therapies back in schools so that the education system and the health system work much more closely together. We have provided the funding for that.

We have also quite rightly provided a significant degree of additional funding to procure additional assessments of need, the issue that the Deputy rightly highlighted. I think the Labour Party tabled in this House a Private Members' motion on this quite a while ago, inspired by Cara Darmody, looking for us to use private capacity and support the use of the private sector. We have tried to do that, albeit in a slightly different way, but now procuring capacity in the private sector as well as the public sector to significantly increase the number of assessments of need, which I will come to in a moment. We have published a new €15 million respite investment plan. Quite rightly as Sinn Féin called for in its Private Members' motion, we have also agreed under the leadership of the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, to opt into the optional protocol to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

I am very clear we need to do a lot more on disability services. I get that and I appreciate that. That is why we now see for the first time additional funding bringing the disability services budget for next year to more than €3 billion with a total allocation of €3.2 billion. This represents an increase of €1.2 billion in funding for disability services in Ireland in five years. It is a record allocation. It will ensure that more people can access more disability services more quickly. It also recognises a number of the pay pressures the Deputy referenced in terms of service providers.

Specifically on the issue of assessment of needs, I will say a couple of things. First, we have placed a real focus on this. In May, we announced a decision to finance an assessment of need waiting list initiative through the procurement of private assessments that I referenced. That is now working. In the first half of this year, we saw a 28% increase in the number of assessments of needs completed when compared with the same period last year. The campaign led by Cara Darmody is making a difference and showing the positive impact we can have by spending taxpayers' money rightly on using private capacity to go alongside public capacity. A total of 1,092 additional children had assessments of need commissioned from private providers and assessors during the months of June, July and August. There have been 1,092 more assessments done as a result of that decision we took in May. I am very pleased that because it is working we allocated a further €10 million in our budget only a few weeks ago to continue this initiative into next year and to expand the scope of it as well.

Work is also ongoing to increase the capacity of our children's disability network teams through several recruitment campaigns. Currently these teams, called CDNTs, are providing services and supports for more than 46,000 children. Disability services were protected during the HSE recruitment embargo. While recruitment and retention of staff is a challenge, significant work is ongoing to fill vacant posts on each of the 93 CDNTs. It is positive that we see the number of people now working in teams increasing year-on-year and the disability workforce increasing year-on-year as well.

New posts have also been funded in the budget for CDNTs, namely, 20 senior-grade and 20 staff-grade therapists, and 20 therapy assessments.

The second point I will make is this. We need to have a very honest conversation around how we respond to that decision in relation to court and the court judgment. I very much respect the independence of the court but from a policy point of view I do not agree that the laws of our land should dictate such rigidity with regard to the length of time an assessment of needs requires. That is not just my view; it is the view of countless parents and disability representative organisations across this country.

The only problem with that perspective is that the legal obligation for an assessment of needs within six months is set out in law. As we speak now, the State continues to break the law. The Taoiseach will concede and accept that.

That is true.

I hope he also accepts that this is not a tolerable situation. That has to change and for it to change, he needs to name a date, in my opinion. That is also the opinion, as the Taoiseach knows, of Cara Darmody, of her father Mark, and everybody who has campaigned very hard on this issue.

I mentioned Jaden and Ciara to the Taoiseach. Like many parents, Ciara is not on her own. There are 11,000 waiting for their assessments of needs. She is frantic with worry now. She completed the forms in January, and she is waiting. It is ten months on and they are left in a state of limbo. I am sure the Taoiseach will accept that this is also unacceptable.

I will put the question to the Taoiseach again, and I might write to him specifically on Jaden's case-----

Please do.

-----although he is not an exception. There are many others in that situation. Rather than questioning the commitment for the six-month rule, can the Taoiseach make a commitment that the law will be respected and that the six-month rule will be upheld? The Taoiseach knows that is the campaign of Cara Darmody in the end - yes, private provision in the meantime and the finance for it but she said loudly and clearly to the Taoiseach, as he stood in photographs with her, that he should get the State to obey the law and to respect and enforce the six-month rule.

I smiled supportively there because definitely Cara does not need the Deputy or me to speak for her.

That is for sure.

She has been very clear and been able to speak to me directly, and I have appreciated those engagements, blunt and frank as they have been. She is an incredible young woman. What I would say directly to Jaden's mum Ciara - I would be very happy to engage with Deputy McDonald further on this - is that we have a pathway now to make significant progress on assessments of needs. It is not just me saying that. I genuinely believe it on the basis of an initiative we started in May. I saw the difference when we put several million euro - I think €7 million, from memory - through the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, and the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, into the assessment of need waiting list initiative. I saw 1,092 additional children get the service. That is why we have now increased that pot by a further €10 million.

I agree with the Deputy. It is to happen only alongside building capacity for the CDNTs. I will say this, and I said this directly to Cara Darmody and to Mark: we will map out exactly the impact that will have on the six-month rule, and I am happy to engage with the Deputy on that. We will do it in the context of the service plan. I still stand over the view, from talking to many parents around the country, that many parents want access to the therapies rather than an elongated assessment of need. Of course they want an assessment of need but they want that to be in as short an amount of time as necessary to give them the answers as to the therapies a child requires. That is the bit that I think we should return to with regard to changing and reforming the law. I am very happy to work with the Deputy on reforming the law in that area, if that is something we can share a view on.