Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)

The reason we want to give the Minister responsibility for speech and language services is that there is an embargo on the recruitment of additional speech and language therapists because they come from the Department of Health and Children. Not only is the Minister failing to deliver on her specific commitments to the House, she has also failed to put in place a proper system to adequately address the need for follow-up assessments. She spoke last night about the SCPA scheme, privately commissioned assessments, but there is no follow-up, as any school principal in the land would tell her. At least in the case of the NEPS, once there is an assessment, there is a follow-up and a plan is devised. The suggestion that the other 50% of schools have access to this service does not stand up to scrutiny. The Minister is also aware——

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