Vol. 555 No. 2
285 Mr. Ardagh asked the Minister for Health and Children if funding will be provided for speech therapy in the private sector for children who are on the waiting list for a considerable time in view of the fact that there appears to be an adequate supply of speech therapists in the private sector who charge in the region of ?50 per half hour. [18014/02]
Additional funding has been made available annually in recent years to the health boards in respect of the provision of health related support services, including speech and language therapy services, for children with an intellectual disability and those with autism. Some €14.6 million has been invested in these services nationally since 1998. In addition to this ringfenced funding, children with disabilities would also have benefited from the additional therapy posts which have been put in place in services for persons with physical or sensory disabilities.
However, many health boards and specialist service providers have been experiencing difficulties in recruiting allied health professionals and specifically speech and language therapists, occupational therapists, physiotherapists and psychologists. This is due primarily to the general shortage of available staff in these grades nationally. Health boards and agencies have been and are continuing to undertake intensive recruitment drives at home and abroad.
My Department has asked the health boards and the Eastern Regional Health Authority to explore other approaches which might result in the maintenance of an existing level of service provision or enhancement in line with agreed services developments using the resources allocated to the services. It is a matter for the Eastern Regional Health Authority and the health boards to decide on the specific approaches which they may consider appropriate in this area.
In response to my concern regarding the high level of vacancies my Department commissioned a report from Dr. Peter Bacon and Associates on current and future supply and demand conditions in the labour market for speech and language therapists, occupational therapists and physiotherapists. The study was published in July 2001. The report recommends an annual increase of 75 course places for speech and language therapy in order to achieve a fourfold increase in the number of speech and language therapists over the next decade.
An inter-agency working group was established comprising representatives of my Department, the Department of Education and Science and the Higher Education Authority, HEA. The HEA, following a formal bidding process between third level educational institutions, has allocated an additional 175 training places, including 75 for speech and language therapy, to respond to the training needs identified in the study. In addition, the Northern Area Health Board has just undertaken a concerted overseas recruitment drive for speech and language therapists on behalf of all health boards. Procedures are being streamlined to minimise the length of time taken to validate foreign qualifications consistent with the overreaching need to ensure that all therapists working in the health sector are appropriately trained and qualified.
The report of the expert group on various health professionals recommended the establishment of a therapy assistant grade, where appropriate to provide practical support to speech and language therapists in their work and also to address the issue of skills mix. This recommendation will be progressed in 2002 in the context of the continuing implementation of the expert group report.
As the Deputy can see from the measures outlined above, the Government has been and is continuing to work to expand the level of speech and language therapy services available generally, and in particular to children with special needs. Responsibility for the provision of services to persons with an intellectual disability and those with autism in the Dublin region rests with the Eastern Regional Health Authority. My Department has therefore asked the chief executive officer of the authority to investigate the matter raised by the Deputy and reply to him directly.
