Over 10,000 children waiting for first contact from disability teams

Michael Bolton

Over 10,000 children are waiting for first contact from Child Disability Network Teams (CDNT) by the end of July.

Figures from the HSE seen by BreakingNews.ie show 10,714 children were waiting for first contact, a slight drop from the 10,961 children at the end of June.

Of those children, 6,957 are waiting over 12 months for first contact.

The figures show that 1,011 children who are on the CDNT waiting list participated in one or more individual and/or group intervention appointments during July 2025.

The CDNTs are currently providing services and supports for over 44,000 children and strategies and supports for urgent cases on the waitlist, where staffing resources allow.

CDNTs are teams of health and social care professionals, including nursing, occupational therapy, psychology, physiotherapy, and speech and language therapy.

The HSE said there has been a 5.6 per cent increase in new children referred (5,370), January to June 2025, over the same period last year.

However, despite the increase, the waiting lists have dropped from 12,920 to 10,961 from December 31st 2024, to June 30th 2025.

The area with the highest number of children waiting for first contact from a CDNT is HSE Dublin Midlands, with 2,817 children waiting for first contact, with 2,038 waiting over 12 months.

This area covers Dublin South City and West and Dublin South West, Kildare, West Wicklow, Laois, Offaly, Longford and Westmeath.

In HSE Dublin and North East, covering North Dublin, Louth, Meath, Monaghan and most of Cavan, 2,764 children were waiting for first contact from a CDNT.

In 1926, children were waiting over 12 months.

In HSE Dublin and South East, covering Carlow, Kilkenny, South Tipperary, Waterford, Wexford, and most of Wicklow, 2,585 children are waiting for first contact.

Of these, 1,977, children were waiting for over 12 months in this area.

At HSE Midwest, providing care to Clare, Limerick, and North Tipperary, 1,193 children are waiting for first contact, with 635 waiting over 12 months.

At HSE West and North West, covering Donegal, Leitrim, Sligo, West Cavan, Mayo, Galway and Roscommon, 735 children are waiting for first contact.

HSE South West, providing care for Cork and Kerry, had  620 children on waiting lists.