Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

I recognise the provision of such services has been a problem for some time. One of the issues was a shortage of graduates of speech and language courses but we have doubled the number of graduates in the past number of years. Another practice that is causing difficulties, in terms of the need for more flexibility, is that such graduates must be supervised by a senior staff member for the first years immediately after qualifying. We must determine why that should be the case. We must ascertain why that particular work practice has been maintained in a way that means newly qualified graduates cannot be released to do their job more expeditiously than is currently the case.

I acknowledge that there is a problem in this area. The response of the Government has been to double the number of places on speech and language therapy courses. The first graduates since that doubling of places emerged during the course of this academic year. The number of people qualifying was the first major problem that we had to address and that is being addressed currently. However, we have now found that there is an added work-practice issue that has been part of how things are done thus far. That issue must be addressed in the context of a more flexible response.

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