Wexford CDNT staffing
Deputy Lawlor says children's disability network teams in Wexford are understaffed and unable to properly serve families. The Tánaiste accepts the staffing challenge, says more posts are being funded, and will ask a Minister of State to seek an HSE update.
There are four children's disability network teams, CDNTs, in County Wexford and none of them have a full team. Some are missing psychologists, some are missing occupational therapists and some do not have nurses or social workers available and it is not possible to cross cover. In other words, someone on the CDNT team in Wexford cannot provide the service to somebody who has a requirement in New Ross. It has been said to me that the CDNTs in Wexford are in chaos as a result of the lack of staff and full teams available to them. Children and their families are really suffering. Will the Tánaiste advise on the Government plan to ensure that the CDNTs across County Wexford and across the country have a full complement of the services required?
Comment on this
I can quote a lot of statistics but that is not going to fix the challenge. We are increasing the number of people working in CDNTs. We are funding more posts and training more people but there are clearly real challenges in terms of fully staffing some of these teams. The Deputy mentioned specific issues with regard to the four teams in County Wexford and the inability - perhaps for very good reasons, I do not know - to cross cover. On foot of the Deputy raising this issue, I will ask the Minister of State, Deputy Emer Higgins, to take a look at that to get an update from the HSE and to come back to the Deputy directly.