Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

With respect, that is not good enough. The number of children on waiting lists has doubled in Dublin in the past three years. Newly qualified graduates, who are obviously very bright people, having obtained 450 and 600 points in their leaving certificate, cannot get jobs because they do not have any experience. There is no cohesion or co-ordination of service delivery. We are currently preparing the most costly form of human export. The graduates will not hang around. They will go to countries where they can get jobs. We train them — the taxpayer pays for their training — and then they find that they cannot get a job in this country once they qualify.

The Taoiseach has said that he has doubled the number of graduates of speech and language therapy courses but the waiting list in Dublin has doubled in the past two years. There is no point in telling the parents of children with speech and language difficulties that we have doubled the number of qualified graduates in the field. Such parents will reply that they must wait three years to have their child assessed and to obtain services, which is not good enough. The Government is now preparing for the most costly form of professional export from this country because the graduates will not wait around.

In order to save the bacon of the Minister for Transport, driving tests are now being conducted at weekends so that adequate numbers of people will pass their test by mid-June.

See this speech in context