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Dáil Éireann debate -
Thursday, 8 Nov 2001

Vol. 543 No. 4

Adjournment Debate. - Special Educational Needs.

It is said that fact can be stranger than fiction and the case I wish to discuss shows that can be the case. It is difficult to believe that no speech therapist is available for St. John's School for Special Needs in Dungarvan, where 17 of 45 children need speech and language therapy. Until this year, a therapist came to the school for one day each week, but the needs of the South-Eastern Health Board elsewhere have meant that the therapist's services have been withdrawn. St. John's now employs an assistant who is not qualified, but who is doing an excellent job in the circumstances. The Department of Health and Children merely suggests that the assistant telephones a therapist elsewhere if particular difficulties arise. That is the degree of service that is being provided.

Having discussed this episode with the school authorities and having raised it in this House by way of a question, it seems there has been a disastrous collapse in therapy services as a result of a tug of war between the Departments of Health and Children and Education and Science. I do not blame the Minister, Deputy Martin, as this problem has been developing for a number of years. The Minister and I have both worked as teachers and we know the area of special needs was not really seen as a problem 20 or 30 years ago. Perhaps problems always existed, but the situation has evolved from when children were classified as slow learners. We now face a critical problem and there are not enough qualified people to do a necessary job.

I appreciate that the Bacon report has advocated that the numbers of therapists being trained be quadrupled within 15 years, but schools like St. John's in Dungarvan, where no therapist is available, face immediate difficulties. It is incredible that the therapist that worked in the school for a day each week has been withdrawn. The division of authority between the Departments must have broken down, as one tries to pass the problem to the other. For the sake of the children, I would like to see a resolution to this problem.

The Minister for Health and Children knows that modern procedures are aggravating the problem. Children with a mild handicap are being absorbed into mainstream schooling, which means that schools for children with special needs tend just to cater for disruptive children. Schools are not doing the jobs they were initially established to do. I do not know if the Minister accepts my point that difficulties have emerged as a result of the absorption of well behaved children with special needs problems into regular schools. Special needs schools are left to cater for the dis ruptive element which is not accepted by mainstream schools. The disruptive nature of many pupils means that each class now needs an assistant to help teachers.

I ask the Deputy to conclude.

I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle for his indulgence. I believe the Minister has the best will in the world to deal with this critical problem. As politicians during the last 20 or 30 years, we did not foresee this difficulty, although we should have. The problem has got the better of us and we are unable to cater for the needs of children with special needs. Will the Minister do his best to see that this problem is redressed as quickly as possible? The situation in Dungarvan should be dealt with immediately. Although the school has advertised, it cannot afford to wait another year for a teacher, as a year has already been lost by the children of St. John's.

I thank Deputy Deasy for raising this issue and for his sincere and constructive comments. He has outlined the problem and indicated the solution, to a certain extent. While this Adjournment debate relates to the unsatisfactory situation with regard to the provision of specialised services for the children at St. John's School for Special Needs in Dungarvan, it is clear the Deputy is particularly concerned about speech and language therapy services. Part of my reply deals with services other than those mentioned by Deputy Deasy.

While health boards have for many years provided certain specialised supports for school children with special needs, there is clearly an increasing demand for such services. A similar demand was not apparent a decade ago, although there was a similar number of children in special schools. The issue of allied health professionals, such as physiotherapists, occupational therapists and speech and language therapists has become a greater priority in recent years. Increased funding has been made available to health boards in recent years to provide health related support services for children with intellectual disability and those with autism. Since 1998, about £8.5 million has been made available to health boards for services like diagnosis, assessment and pre-school and outreach support for children of school going age with disabilities.

I have been informed by the South-Eastern Health Board that a liaison nurse for children with intellectual disability calls to St. John's School when required. The school receives medical services from the area medical officer and the school nurse, based in St. Joseph's Hospital, Dungarvan. Psychology assessments are accessed through school medical services. Occupational therapy and physiotherapy may be accessed through the community care clinics in St. Joseph's Hospital. As Deputy Deasy rightly pointed out, the school had a speech and language therapist, but the therapist's availability for just one day each week does not seem like a great provision. The health board has informed me that the suspension of the therapist's visits to St. John's is temporary and results from a shortage of therapists. The board provides a grant to the school to meet the care needs of the children.

The special schools in the Waterford area have applied for nursing services to be made available to them by the board. A survey in relation to this matter has just been carried out by the area co-ordinators. I understand that information was received from St. John's School on 7 November. All applications for additional funding within the intellectual disability services must go through the local consultative committee and be prioritised by them. An application has been submitted for funding to provide nursing services to all the special schools in the Waterford area, including St. John's.

Many health boards and service providers have been experiencing difficulties in recruiting allied health professionals and specifically speech and language therapists, occupational therapists, physiotherapists and psychologists.

In response to my ongoing concern regarding current severe labour shortages affecting the therapy professions nationwide, I have taken a number of measures to address this shortage on short-term, medium-term and long-term bases. These include an assessment of workforce requirements up to 2015 which outlined the increases required in the number of course places required by the therapy professions and a concerted recruitment drive at home and abroad. I am working with my colleague, the Minister for Education and Science, to ensure the rapid provision of the additional places as a matter of urgency. The Higher Education Authority has initiated a formal bidding process between third level institutions to respond to the training needs identified in the study. That bidding will involve setting up new schools of speech and language therapy in addition to the one in existence. We have only had one for the past 30 years, in Trinity College Dublin, producing about 20 therapists. Now the endeavour is to provide more schools of physiotherapy, occupational therapy and, most especially, of speech and language therapy.

We have also responded to the expert group on various health professionals and gave £10 million for the implementation of its recommendations. In the interim we have authorised the health boards to go abroad to recruit as many specialists as they can in the short-term. Even though substantial funding was given last year, the health boards were unable to utilise all of it because of inability to get staff. I will look into the situation in St. John's to see whether we can

do something in the interim to provide a speech and language therapy service to the children there. It is the one issue that is holding us back in terms of giving the comprehensive service that children with special needs require, and it is one that is very frustrating from my point of view because I know it is the bugbear of all the various providers of such services across the country.

The Dáil adjourned at 5.25 p.m. until 2.30 p.m. on Tuesday, 13 November 2001.

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