The provision of health related services, including speech and language therapy, is a matter for the Eastern Regional Health Authority and the health boards in the first instance. Accordingly, the Deputy's question has been referred to the chief executive officer of the Mid-Western Health Board with a request that he examine the matter and reply directly to the Deputy as a matter of urgency.
Furthermore, I wish to advise the Deputy that my Department commissioned a report on current and future supply and demand 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 number of speech and language therapists requiring a very significant increase in training places to meet the long-term needs 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.