Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

With regard to the number of speech and language therapists coming into the system, the basic problem, as I have outlined, that has been in existence for some time is that there were not sufficient numbers of speech and language graduates coming through the system while at the same time there was an increased demand from the public. This has been addressed and we must ensure that the work practices within the public service are such to enable those people to deal with the demand. As the Deputy said, in some parts of the country and the city, that issue is being dealt with adequately while in other parts it is not.

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