I thank you, a Chathaoirligh, for allowing this motion. A speech and language therapist works with both children and adults to diagnose, treat and manage a wide range of disorders. Speech and language disorders are now recognised as a serious health care problem. As the Minister is well aware, good communications skills are vital to social activities, both in forming and maintaining relationships. If speech and language is deficient or damaged, it has a massive affect on the person's life and this is why the job is so important. One of my boys has attended such a therapist and I know well of these people's great work.
Speech and language therapists are seeking pay comparable with other graduate health care professionals. To become a qualified speech and language therapist a student must first achieve 500 points in the leaving certificate, which is higher than the amount required for most university degree courses, and complete a four-year honours degree course.
The pay gap with other health professionals has widened since this grade was introduced in 1982. At the maximum point of the scale a speech and language therapist now earns £9,213 less than a clinical psychologist, £7,390 less than a physicist, £4,792 less than a hospital pharmacist and £3,067 less than a professionally qualified social worker. According to speech and language therapists, one of the reasons for the poor relative pay is that the profession is predominantly female. Only four of the 250 speech and language therapists in Ireland are male. A similar situation in the UK has given rise to the European Court of Justice ruling that speech and language therapists should get pay comparable to the graduate health professionals.
Pay negotiations with the Department of Health under the Programme for Competitiveness and Work have broken down because the Department has failed to address the genuine problems and concerns. It is in this context that I am intervening to ask the Minister to get the pay talks back on track.
