More than one-quarter of children who received an assessment of need on the State’s oversubscribed public system in the first quarter of 2025 were deemed not to have a disability.
There was a 20 per cent increase in applications for an assessment of needs between January and March, as the number waiting well beyond their legal entitlement for an assessment swelled to more than 15,000.
The Health Service Executive said this was an 8 per cent increase on the 14,221 children waiting longer than six months for an assessment at the end of last year.
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It said the increase was “largely due” to a rise in applications, court judgments clarifying the rights of more children to access an assessment and the proportion of them receiving an assessment who did not have a disability.
An assessment of need is a way to quantify the educational or health needs of a child. It is often sought by parents as a way to access crucial services such as speech and language or occupational therapy and can be required before a child’s school enables access to supports such as a special needs assistant.
The HSE said it received 3,131 new applications for an assessment of needs in the first quarter, a 20 per cent increase on the same period a year earlier.
The number of assessments completed between January and March increased to 1,412, up from 849 in the same period last year. This was largely driven by an extra €4.5 million being given to the HSE in Budget 2025 to address the backlog.
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Of the assessments completed by the HSE in the first quarter, some 26 per cent found the child had “no disability”.
The HSE said the percentage of assessments that showed “no disability” in 2010 stood at 15.8 per cent. It also said that “it is not possible to extrapolate information on each individual Assessment of Need completed which showed ‘No Disability’”.
Under the Disability Act 2005, the State is legally required to carry out an assessment of need within six months of an application. The Health Service Executive again indicated that the number of children waiting longer than six months is estimated to reach almost 25,000 by the year’s end.
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The figures were released in response to a parliamentary question from Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald.
She said it was “unacceptable” that assessments of needs were taking so long and “even more astonishing that the HSE expects the number of overdue assessments to increase this year to over 24,000, when it is already astronomical at 15,000”.
“In each one of these cases, the Government is breaking the law,” she said. “In 2022, the government was caught cutting corners when the High Court struck down their illegal shortcut. Three years on, and they still do not have a plan to deliver on the legal rights of children with disabilities. Children’s rights are being denied.”
The Dublin Central TD said parents and families “have had enough” and she called on the Government to “take emergency action” and make funding available to clear the backlog.
“It must set a specific target date for complying with the Disability Act 2005, underpinned by a workforce plan to train, recruit, and retain enough staff to finally end this breach of children’s rights.”
The HSE said that despite millions in additional funding being made available, including funding for it to pay private providers to carry out 3,636 assessments from June 2024 to last March, “the number of people overdue an assessment of need is growing as demand outstrips system capacity”.
