At the end of a plan to improve disability services for children, the Government has missed its own target for completed Assessments of Needs (AON) over a two-and-a-half year period.
The Health Service Executive's Roadmap For Service Improvement 2023 to 2026 had included a target of 19,042 completed assessments, but according to the HSE's final report into the plan, it fell short by 5,600.
The total figure included reassessed Preliminary Term Assessments (PTA) - which were conducted in 2020 in a bid to cut waiting lists.
They were required to be reassessed after a High Court ruling in 2022, which found they were in breach of the 2005 Disability Act.
Between 2023 and 2026, 11,872 AONs were completed, and an estimated 1,570 PTAs reassessed, with a remaining AON Roadmap target of 5,600.
Both the HSE and the Department of Children, Disability and Equality have acknowledged the target was not met.
In a statement, the HSE has said: "In 2025, the HSE received 13,186 applications for AON, representing more than a five-fold increase from the first full year of its implementation in 2008.
"In Quarter 1, 2026, the HSE has received 3,814 applications - a 22% increase on the same period last year.
"The HSE has undertaken actions to address waiting lists. In 2025, 5,949 AONs were completed, a 43% increase on 2024 figure of 4,162. In Q1, 2026, 1,528 AONs were completed. This represents an 8% increase on the figure for the same period last year."
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'We still haven't got any therapies to this day for Jack'
"It actually doesn't surprise me at all," said Jane Allen from Finglas in Dublin.
Jane's son Jack has been waiting for a completed assessment for over two years.
"We were still waiting two years and to this day he still doesn't have an actual complete assessment because they've never given him a cognitive assessment," she told RTÉ's Morning Ireland.
"Now all of that reflects on schooling, therapies and different things, and we still haven't got any therapies to this day for Jack.
"So when he had his assessment done back in June 23, they actually had to outsource that to a private company because they just don't have the staff to do them," she added
"So the team who Jack is under in CDNT, they have never actually seen Jack until last week, when they started his cognitive assessments."
There were some improvements as a result of the roadmap, especially in the realm of staffing rates at Child Disability Network Teams (CDNTs).
Number of caseloads increased
When this plan was approved, 29% of posts were vacant within CDNTs, and that fell to 18% by the end of the plan.
The number of caseloads have gone up, while there has been a 55% increase in the number of student placements within the teams.
There was also a fall in the number of children waiting for their first contact with their local CDNT - from 16,500 to over 9,300
This waiting list has been a challenge for the HSE and the Government for a number of years - likewise the access to disability services like occupational therapy, speech and language therapy, audiology, psychology among many others available.
Inclusion Ireland CEO Derval McDonagh said there needs to be an urgent approach to address waiting lists for those services.
"When we ask families if delays in accessing therapies and support have had an impact on their family, two-thirds of families said it had a significant or very significant impact on their child and on their family," she said.
"So we've got to put equal effort there into building the supports in those early years for children; giving better access to therapies and also building that better ecosystem of supports.
"That is wraparound supports for children in their communities, access to home support, access to respite, access to advocacy and information, and we have to put equal effort into building all of those supports," she added.
In a statement the Department of Children, Disability and Equality acknowledged this "ambitious" target of just over 19,000 assessments of needs was not met, referring back to the increased demand the HSE has experienced in recent years.
"Demand for Assessments of Need has increased significantly in recent years, reflecting both the increase in population and the number of families exploring all options to access services for their child," a spokesperson for the department said.
"Funding of €20 million has been provided this year for the Assessment of Need Targeted Waitlist Initiative.
"It is expected that some 6,000 clinical assessments will be delivered this year, with a specific focus on autism spectrum disorder at a fixed cost of €2,900 per assessment," he adds.
The Targeted Waitlist Initiative was launched in 2024 by then-taoiseach Simon Harris, which outsourced Assessments of need to private clinicians.
Since 2024 just under €28 million has been spent under this scheme, covering over 7,700 assessments.
The department also said that 11 new HSE teams will be initially created to support assessment processes, and this will provide clinical guidance and administrative supports.
When this roadmap launched in mid-2023 there were over 7,600 children overdue an assessment of needs.
As of the end of the first three months of 2026, the number of children overdue an assessment stood at 21,782.
