I welcome the Minister of State. Most of my Adjournment matters tend to revolve around education matters. As I always do at the start of an Adjournment debate and while I have no problem with the Minister of State being in attendance, I suggest that a Minister from the relevant Department should be present. I am sure the Minister of State, Deputy White, will be well able to answer my question.
During the last school year, St. Joseph's school on Parnell Street in Waterford had approximately 86 students on its roll, 40 of whom required speech and language therapy. They are faced with an appalling situation. Since May 2009, the school has had no speech and language therapist. It is designed to cater for children experiencing speech and language difficulties. That half of the school's students have not had a speech and language therapist available to them for more than 12 months despite needing this service is a disgrace. The principal, Mr. Dermot Murray, has been in constant contact with the Department of Education and Skills throughout the period to try to reach a resolution whereby this facility would be restored, but none of his correspondence has been successful. Representatives from County Waterford in the Lower House have asked questions, but this school takes in students from the east of the county, Waterford city, south County Kilkenny and parts of counties Wexford and south Tipperary. The area is large.
I understand that the person who held the position is on illness leave and has not been replaced. The Department's letters to the principal go to varying lengths to explain that efforts are being made to appoint someone to the position. Whatever efforts have been made, none has been successful. It has been speculated that one of the possible solutions being considered is to have the position taken by a speech and language therapist from outside the school. In this way, parents would need to take their children from the school to visit the therapist. Crucially, there would be no interaction between the teachers and the therapist. This solution would not be good enough. Given the students' difficulties, daily contact between the teaching staff and the person filling the role is essential to ensure students are progressing in their therapies.
The situation is not the Minister of State's fault, but this is time that the affected primary schoolchildren will not get back. We all know the value of early intervention and support for people with particular education requirements and the knock-on benefits for the country such intervention can have. The school's situation is not acceptable and I hope the Minister of State will have some positive news about a resolution to the difficulty. It is wrong and unjustifiable that more than a year has passed since this facility was available to the school's students.