In response to my concern regarding severe shortages of qualified therapy personnel, including speech and language therapists, that are seriously affecting the provision of key therapy services nationwide my Department commissioned the report referred to by the Deputy, "Current and Future Supply and Demand Conditions in the Labour Market for Certain Professional Therapists", from Dr. Peter Bacon and Associates.
The Bacon Report which was published in July 2001 concluded that a major expansion is essential in the numbers of speech and language therapists requiring a very significant increase in training places to meet the long-term requirements of the health service. The report, therefore, advocated an annual increase of 75 training places for speech and language therapy in order to achieve the fourfold increase in the number of speech and language therapists over the next decade recommended in the report.
To advance this core recommendation of the report an inter-agency working group has been established comprising representatives of my Department, the Department of Education and Science and the Higher Education Authority. The Higher Education Authority has initiated a formal bidding process between third level educational institutions to respond to the training needs identified in the Bacon Report. The proposals received are currently being assessed by the inter-agency working group with a view to early progress in the provision of the extra training places required.