Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 4 Nov 2003

Vol. 573 No. 3

Written Answers. - Health Board Staff.

Róisín Shortall

Question:

458 Ms Shortall asked the Minister for Health and Children the figures available to him in respect of each health board area on the number of speech and language therapist posts currently assigned to each health board area; and the number of these posts in each area which are actually filled. [25157/03]

Róisín Shortall

Question:

459 Ms Shortall asked the Minister for Health and Children the figures available to him in respect of each health board area on the number of occupational therapist posts currently assigned to each health board area; and the number of these posts in each area which are actually filled. [25158/03]

Minister for Health and Children (Mr. Martin)

I propose to take Questions Nos. 458 and 459 together.

Responsibility for human resource planning, including the monitoring and filling of vacant occupational therapist and speech and language therapist posts in each health board region, rests with the chief executive officer, chief executive officer, of each board. Each chief executive officer, in managing the workforce in his-her region, is responsible for determining the appropriate staffing mix and the precise grades of staff to be employed in line with service plan priorities, subject to overall employment levels remaining within the approved regional employment ceiling. My Department does not, therefore, routinely collect information on vacant occupational therapist or speech therapist posts within each health board. However, as the Deputy may be aware, intensive efforts have been undertaken to improve staffing levels in occupational therapy and speech and language therapy, both at local and national level. The success of these measures is reflected in the increase of 77 speech and language therapists – an increase of 20% – and 208 occupational therapists – an increase of 47% – employed in the public health service during the past two years. Relevant developments include the continued implementation of the recommendations of the report of the expert group on various health professions, which included new pay scales and career structures, the undertaking of a concerted overseas recruitment drive on behalf of all health boards, the introduction of a fast track working visa scheme for health and social care professionals and the streamlining of procedures for the validation of overseas qualifications.

In addition, significant increases in training places in speech and language therapy and occupational therapy have now also taken place through the establishment of new courses in University College Cork, the National University of Ireland, Galway, and the University of Limerick to meet the health service's long-term human resource requirements in speech and language therapy and occupational therapy as estimated in the report Current and Future Demand Conditions in the Labour Market for Certain Professional Therapists prepared by Peter Bacon and Associates and published in July 2001.