Ms Áine Lawlor:

In terms of an AC device, as Ms Mortell said, it is not just about giving a device to somebody and we cannot just expect a teacher to be able to support all of the different children with all of their different needs without appropriate support. That is the joy of having a speech therapist and wider team around a child who can support implementation and move from individual sessions that assess and prescribe a device and build on it, to supporting a child to use that in the playground, on the bus to school or wherever they might need it in their home or school environment. That is required and I hope this therapy in schools will allow that movement so there can be truly meaningful communication for a child. That requires a societal approach as well whereby we are accepting of different ways of communicating.

On the shortage of speech and language therapists, there have been announcements of an increase in college places for speech and language therapists. We are very supportive of that. However, as Ms Mortell said, which the Senator may have missed, there is a pipeline issue with speech and language therapists but there is also an issue around how we attract and retain them in our system. There have been issues, in particular the size of caseloads and working conditions, that we hear about from our members which are impacting retention of therapists in our health system, never mind attracting them into the education system. It is important that we get some of those structures right so that it is a safe place to work, for therapists as well as for users who are accessing our services.