Figures from the HSE show 8,200 children were waiting for their first contact from a Child Disability Network Team (CDNT) at the end of March.<\/p>\n
Of those children, 5,261 have been waiting over 12 months. This is a reduction from the 8,648 children waiting at the end of 2025.<\/p>\n
The Regional Healthcare Area (RHA) with the highest number of children waiting for first contact is HSE Dublin Midlands, with 2,252 children on waiting lists.<\/p>\n
1,669 children are waiting over a year. This RHA covers Dublin South City and West and Dublin South West, Kildare, West Wicklow, Laois, Offaly, Longford, and Westmeath.<\/p>\n
At HSE Dublin and South East, 2,078 children are waiting for first contact, with 1,432 waiting for over a year.<\/p>\n
This covers Carlow, Kilkenny, South Tipperary, Waterford, Wexford, and most of Wicklow.<\/p>\n
HSE Dublin and North East, which covers North Dublin, Louth, Meath, Monaghan, and most of Cavan, has 1,908 children waiting for first contact from a CDNT.<\/p>\n
1,269 children in this RHA are waiting over a year.<\/p>\n
At HSE Midwest, covering Clare, Limerick, and North Tipperary, 1,109 children are waiting for first contact from a CDNT, with 599 waiting over a year on waiting lists.<\/p>\n
HSE West and North West, which provides care for Donegal, Leitrim, Sligo, West Cavan, Mayo, Galway and Roscommon, had 452 children waiting to hear from CDNT’s.<\/p>\n
At HSE South West, providing care for Cork and Kerry, 401 children are on waiting lists.<\/p>\n
The figures come as a report shows that as of October 2025, there was an 18 per cent vacancy rate for positions within CDNT’s, with 457 posts unfilled.<\/p>\n
The HSE are the biggest lead agency over the 93 CDNTs, providing 43 of them.<\/p>\n
Enable Ireland provides 20, while Brothers of Charity provide six.<\/p>\n
Enable Ireland is the largest of the Section 39 providers with a funding allocation for 502.3 Whole Time Equivalent (WTE), with 85 per cent of positions reported as filled.<\/p>\n
Brothers of Charity is the largest Section 38 provider with a 208.9 funded WTE, with 89 per cent of positions filled.<\/p>\n
The CDNT with the highest vacancy rate is in Clonmel, with 54 per cent of posts vacant.<\/p>\n
In Gorey, Co Wexford, and Waterford North City, 52 per cent of roles are not filled.<\/p>\n
The RHA with the highest vacancy rate is Dublin and South East, with 25 per cent of posts remaining unfilled.<\/p>\n
27 per cent of Occupational Therapists posts remain vacant, with 40.9 unfilled.<\/p>\n
There is also 44 per cent of Clinical Psychologist positions unfilled, with 41.6 posts vacant.<\/p>\n
There are 93 CDNTs aligned to 96 Community Healthcare Networks (CHNs) across the country, providing services and supports for children aged from birth to 18 years of age.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Figures from the HSE show 8,200 children were waiting for their first contact from a Child Disability Network…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":499211,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-499210","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499210","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=499210"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499210\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/499211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=499210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=499210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=499210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}