Gabrielle McFadden (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am grateful for the opportunity to address the Minister about the audiology course in Athlone Institute of Technology, AIT. I wish to highlight the urgent need to ensure the BSc honours degree programme in audiology at AIT continues its student intake once the current cohort of students complete their programme in the summer of 2016.

Students from the Republic of Ireland traditionally had to go to the UK to gain an educational qualification in audiology by pursuing a BSc degree in audiology, which is the current entry level for an audiologist working in the UK. On foot of this, and worrying reports on the serious scarcity of community audiologists and long waiting lists, one of the programmes proposed during the AIT school of science strategy meeting in 2009 was a level 8 four-year BSc honours degree course in audiology. It was the first of its type in Ireland. At this juncture, AIT, which has the authority to develop, design and validate its own programmes, began a phased development of the BSc honours degree in audiology. The AIT audiology course was subsequently included in the Central Applications Office, CAO, listing for entry in September 2012. The college received public funding of €100,000 to support the programme.

However, it appears that the HSE changed its thinking and proposed that the entry-level qualification for an audiologist working in the HSE be a two-year MSc programme, as opposed to an undergraduate course. In the meantime, a cohort of 21 students had commenced their first year in the new course in audiology in the AIT. However, at the end of their first year the programme was facing cancellation because the Higher Education Authority, HEA, said it would not provide funding for work placements. Apparently, they did not meet the new MSc entry level requirement. At the start of August last year the class of audiology students was left in academic limbo after the course was cancelled due to placement and funding issues. Thankfully, a settlement was reached some weeks later in the High Court between AIT, the HSE and the HEA, allowing the cohort of students to continue their four-year course. Unfortunately, once the current cohort of students graduate in summer 2016, the programme will not continue until the situation is resolved to the satisfaction of AIT, the HSE and the HEA. Athlone Institute of Technology has suspended its student intake for the course.

The Minister will be aware that the earlier a child is tested, the better the chance of diagnosing a hearing problem and putting in place a programme to ensure the child gets the best opportunity to develop communications skills. In the last few years a senior HSE official said the service was facing significant demand and pointed to research carried out in the UK which showed that between the ages of 71 and 80 years as many as 82% of people have some degree of hearing impairment. Given our aging population, the service will be expected to meet a greatly increased demand from that age group.

As the window of opportunity to resolve this issue is getting narrower and there is obviously a clear demand for audiologists in this country, I ask the Minister to give the matter due consideration. We must ensure that the excellent audiology course at Athlone Institute of Technology continues to take in students, which will help in meeting the growing public demand for audiology services.

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