Vol. 550 No. 4
339 Mr. Bell asked the Minister for Health and Children if his attention has been drawn to the shortage of speech therapists in the North-Eastern Health Board Area for Down's syndrome children; his views on whether this is due to staff shortages over the past five years; his plans to rectify this situation; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8445/02]
Responsibility for the provision of speech and language therapy services to children with Down's Syndrome in the north east is a matter for the North-Eastern Health Board. Additional funding has been made available annually in recent years to the health boards, including the North-Eastern Health Board, for the provision of health-related support services for children with an intellectual disability and those with autism. In addition to this ring-fenced funding, children with disabilities have also benefited from the additional therapy posts which have been put in place in services for persons with physical or sensory disabilities. Many health boards and specialist service providers have been experiencing difficulties in recruiting allied health professionals, especially speech and language therapists, occupational therapists, physiotherapists and psychologists. This is due primarily to the general shortage of available staff in these grades nationally.
Health boards and agencies have been and are continuing to undertake intensive recruitment drives at home and abroad. My Department has asked the health boards and the Eastern Regional Health Authority to explore other approaches which might result in the maintenance of an existing level of service provision or an enhancement in line with agreed service developments using the resources allocated to the services. In response to my concern regarding the high level of vacancies my Department commissioned a report from Dr. Peter Bacon and Associates on current and future supply and demand conditions in the labour market for speech and language therapists, occupational therapists and physiotherapists. The study was published in July 2001. The report recommends an annual increase of 75 course places for speech and language therapy in order to achieve a fourfold increase in the number of speech and language therapists over the next decade.
