A System in Freefall: 16,500 Children Waiting for Assessments — and CAMHS Delays Stretching Over a Decade
Ireland is facing a profound and deepening crisis in children’s services, with more than 16,500 children now awaiting overdue Assessments of Need (AON) and thousands more stuck on CAMHS waiting lists, where some families report waiting up to 13 years for appropriate interventions. The scale of these delays, revealed in recent data and long-standing parliamentary reports, represents a systemic failure that experts, parents, and public representatives describe as nothing short of a national scandal.
AONs — a statutory requirement under the Disability Act 2005 — are intended to identify a child’s health and educational needs within six months of an application. Yet according to figures released to Sinn Féin TD Pa Daly, only 12% of assessments were completed within the legal timeframe in the second quarter of this year. A staggering 16,593 assessments were overdue by the end of Q2, an 8.5% increase in just three months. Even more concerning, the number of overdue assessments has been rising every year since 2021, despite repeated commitments by the HSE and the Department of Children and Disability to improve compliance.
This means that nearly nine in ten children are not receiving their rights under the Act — rights that determine access to essential therapies, supports, school resources, and early intervention programmes. In some regions, fewer than 10% of assessments are completed on time, with the worst-affected areas reporting waits that stretch beyond two years. Families describe a system that leaves children “lost”, schools unsupported, and parents forced into private assessments they can’t afford.
Running parallel to this crisis is the long-documented collapse in the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS). Years of understaffing, unfilled consultant posts, and inconsistent clinical governance have produced waiting lists that are internationally unprecedented. The most extreme cases — highlighted repeatedly in Oireachtas hearings, media investigations, and parental testimonies — include young people who were told they could wait 10 to 13 years for psychological or psychiatric support. In a service designed for acute mental-health needs, a decade-long wait effectively means no service at all.
The overlap between delayed AONs and CAMHS failures is devastating. Children with autism, ADHD, developmental delays, anxiety, depression, or trauma are being shuttled between two broken systems. Without an AON, they cannot access occupational therapy, speech and language therapy, behavioural support, or educational resources. Without CAMHS, they cannot receive timely diagnosis, clinical oversight, or essential mental-health interventions.
The consequences are visible across Irish society: school breakdowns, escalating behavioural crises, distressed families, and increased emergency-department presentations. Teachers report rising classroom challenges, while community groups warn that the State is “pushing children into lifelong disadvantage”.
Despite the HSE highlighting year-on-year increases in the number of completed AONs, the scale of demand continues to far outpace capacity. CAMHS, meanwhile, remains chronically undermanned, with some teams operating at 40% of recommended staffing levels.
Ultimately, this is not just an administrative backlog — it is the systematic denial of children’s rights. As waiting lists continue to grow, the moral and legal obligations of the State become ever clearer: without radical reform, investment, and accountability, another generation of Irish children will be left behind.