A LIMERICK councillor has accused the HSE of struggling to meet its legal obligations in relation to people with disabilities, with 442 overdue applications for the Assessment of Needs (AON) process.
Of those overdue, 376 had been waiting over three months, according to Social Democrats councillor Elisa O’Donovan.
Cllr O’Donovan said that the growing AON waiting lists mean that the HSE is struggling to meet its legislative obligations under the Disability Act.
Cllr O’Donovan, who represents Limerick City West, said that “figures provided to the Social Democrats by the HSE lay bare the full extent of the crisis in disability services in Ireland”.
“Nationally, there were 14,221 applications for an AONs overdue for completion by the end of last year. Of these, 11,693 had been waiting more than three months for an appointment.”
Under the Disability Act 2005, an AON must be completed within six months but just 10.4 per cent of assessments completed in 2024 were within the timeframes set out.
“As children languish on unacceptably long waiting lists, they are being denied access to early intervention treatments, as well as any educational or financial supports they may be entitled to,” Cllr O’Donovan said.
In response, a spokesperson for HSE Mid West said that an AON “is not needed to access health services. While the waiting list for AON is significant, it is not an impediment to children accessing therapeutic intervention or therapy services.”
The spokesperson said that the aim of an AON “is to identify whether a person has a disability, the nature and extent of the disability, any health and education needs arising from that disability, and what services are required to meet those needs”.
“The increased numbers of applications for AON, which is a legal entitlement under the Disability Act 2005, is a reflection of the increase in population and of families exploring all options for accessing services for their child.
“In order to address the backlog and increase compliance with the Disability Act 2005, disability services in the Mid West, have resourced an additional clinical team, solely dedicated to the completion of AONs under the Disability Act.”
The spokesperson added that there is a National Waiting Initiative targeting those families waiting longest for an AON with the HSE reimbursing clinicians directly through the procurement of capacity from approved private providers.
“This initiative is being progressed in the Mid West through the existing framework of providers procured by the HSE region.”
Under this initiative, 2,479 AONs nationally have been commissioned from private providers and assessors from June to December last year.
The HSE is also taking steps to improve access to timely AONs, including engaging with the Department of Education to remove school principals’ requirement that an AON report is needed to determine educational need.
Figures show that the number of children aged five and over, and in addition of school-going age, has risen steadily as a percentage of all applications received.
At the end of 2011, the figure stood at 26 per cent, while throughout 2024, this figure averaged 67 per cent. Eligibility for AON now includes persons up to 22 years of age.
