I raise the issue of staffing of children's disability network teams across the country. I have replies here from the HSE that say between 22% and 29% of posts are vacant. In Laois, I can tell the Minister that there are posts where there is 100% vacancy and 67% vacancy.

In Laois, there is a chronic situation regarding staffing. The figures for network 12, which covers most of the county, are absolutely shocking. I will give the Minister a flavour of what they are. Occupational therapy is 33% staffed and 67% vacant. Speech and language is 46% staffed. Physiotherapy is 50%, and these are the three critical disciplines, as I understand it, for children who are on the autism spectrum. If you go down to therapy assistants, there are zero levels of staffing. Dietetics, zero. Behaviour therapists, incredibly, are zero.

I raise this with the Minister on behalf of parents who are at their wits' end on this issue. For children who badly need services and who have autism, ADHD, dyspraxia or a range of other disabilities, the services are not there. These children are missing out on assessments, therapies and, crucially, on care at a crucial stage in their development. We all know that children with special needs require the early interventions. Early intervention equals better outcomes but late or no interventions lead to huge problems later in life. This can cause huge problems for families and children do not go on to live the full lives they should. It is putting enormous pressure on families, so parents, including those who cannot afford it, are going private for assessment and in some cases are borrowing thousands of euro. Sometimes that is from the credit union or from family and friends but sometimes it is from moneylenders.

Voluntary organisations such as Laois Offaly Families for Autism try to plug the gap. A voluntary organisation tried to plug the gap for some families and provide whatever services they could out of their limited resources but they can only do a small percentage of what is needed, so there are gaps in services. This is not a new problem. The problem is older than this House, or the time I am in this House, I should say, and going back to when I was a county councillor. This problem has been raised with me for the last nearly three decades, way back into the 1990s.

A particular problem in Laois is that there is only a third of OT posts filled, with some of the other ones outlined, and some posts have no staffing whatsoever. I know it cannot be fixed overnight, and it means increasing the pipeline. What is being done by Government to increase the workforce supply pipeline? We cannot flick a switch, I understand that.

I thank the Deputy. As he began his contribution, I will begin mine by acknowledging the huge anxiety and distress that families can face when young girls and boys with additional needs need additional support and have various conditions that we want to make a difference to. We see what that does to them for their start in life, and what it does to their families, their mams and dads, who are trying to get the support they want to give to their son and daughter when they know they need it.

I also recognise, as the Deputy has done, those voluntary organisations and service providers outside of the State that play a very valuable role in supporting the State and those families who need the help we all want to see them get. I also appreciate the Deputy's honesty in acknowledging that despite the importance of this issue - and it is one we are doing our best to make a difference to - it is going to take time when time is short for those young girls and boys who need the help we want to give them.

To directly answer the Deputy's question around what the Government is doing on this, we are doing three particular things. First, at a political level, it is the reason the Taoiseach is chairing a Cabinet subcommittee on the issue of disability. All of us meet those families, children and their parents, and we see at first hand what that means to their journey in life. We want to better co-ordinate the resources that the State is making available, and through our budgets build on the progress we have made recently from a funding and recruitment perspective. The Taoiseach has decided to chair a Cabinet group to look at how we can do that.

Second, we are looking at what we can do from a supply perspective to ensure that we have those in our universities and places of higher learning who, in turn, can become the very therapists that we need. The Minister of State, Deputy Naughton, and in fact all of the Ministers here, are working on this issue. What we are seeing in so many parts of the world is a demand for these therapists and healthcare professionals, and it is why the Minister, Deputy O'Donovan, the now Tánaiste and my colleagues here have looked at what we can do in our universities to ensure the supply of these professionals is progressing. That is under way.

Finally, and most importantly from a recruitment perspective, we are making efforts in this area. We know we need more therapists and healthcare professionals but we have seen, for example, 272 more healthcare professionals in this area now, and an overall increase in the numbers working in that broad area. It is the reason we are putting more therapists into our schools, and it is the reason we are looking at what measures we can put in our schools early in the educational journey to make sure this support is provided at a time it is most urgently needed.

I thank the Minister for his reply. While there are moves afoot, it needs to be at a scale and a pace to match the demand that is there.

The HSE states in one of its replies to me that there is an apprenticeship programme for social workers. Can there be apprenticeship programmes for other disciplines? Maybe that cannot be done but that is possibly one area that could be used.

We agree that the current situation cannot continue. We have to expand what is there. However, on the way home last night at 9.30 p.m. on the local radio, I heard an advertisement from a private company seeking people in these disciplines and are recruiting them. There is a huge problem there with retention in the HSE. The Minister is right about increasing the supply because obviously that has to happen.

On training places, I mentioned apprenticeships. That may not be appropriate for some of those disciplines because it may be required at a different level. I do not know the ins and outs of that but where apprenticeships can be used, can we look at doing that and increasing the supply? This year, with the new academic year, can we further increase the places in universities in those disciplines?

I thank the Deputy again for raising the issue. I can make the case to him that the vacancy rate within these healthcare professions has decreased. It has decreased from 29% in 2023 to 21% in 2024, and that is an improvement, but we have so much further to go because we know the level of human need that is there. We know we need to be helping families and the children they love so much in a better way than is happening at the moment. I can make the case for how much more money we are spending. I can make the case that my colleagues are giving this all the priority they can. I could point to how many more healthcare professionals we have there. We need to continue with this and we will.

Going to the further important point the Deputy made, he made the point regarding whether we can put in place staff to assist these therapists and their healthcare professionals in doing their work. That is being done at the moment.

We have a budget of €500,000 in place to allow the hiring of a further 20 health and social care professional assistants or therapy assistants to help with this work being done. I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue today.