Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 29 June 2004
299 Mr. Crowe asked the Minister for Health and Children the number of vacant speech and language therapist posts in the various health board areas; and the emergency measures he proposes to introduce to deal with those vacancies which are having a negative effect on the children waiting. [19263/04]
View answerAs the Deputy may be aware, intensive efforts have been undertaken to improve staffing levels in speech and language therapy, both at local and national level. The success of these measures has contributed to an increase of 93 whole-time equivalents, WTEs, in the public health service from 399 WTEs at end-2001 to 492 WTEs at end-2003. This represents an increase of almost 20% over the period complementing the increase of 13.5%, 345 WTEs to 399 WTEs, which took place over the two year period from end-1999 to end-2001.
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, enhanced opportunities for professional and career development, the availability of the fast track working visa scheme and the streamlining of procedures for the validation of overseas qualifications are designed to help sustain the improvements in staffing levels achieved for speech and language therapy services, both at local and national level.
In addition, as the Deputy may be aware, three new speech and language therapy courses commenced in the 2003-04 academic year in UCC, NUIG and UL. In total, these courses will provide an additional 75 training places in speech and language therapy. This expansion in training numbers has been identified in the Bacon report as sufficient to meet the long-term demand-supply balance for speech and language therapists in Ireland.
Responsibility for human resource planning, including the monitoring and filling of vacant speech and language therapist posts in each health board area, rests with the chief executive officer, CEO, of each board. Each CEO, in managing the workforce in his or 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. Therefore, my Department does not routinely collect information on vacant speech and language therapy posts and has asked the chief executive of each health board to investigate the matter raised by the Deputy and to reply to him directly.
