Finian McGrath (Dublin Bay North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Fergus O'Dowd for raising this very important issue. In the Louth area, Deputy O'Dowd is very committed to supporting the rights of people with disabilities, particularly intellectual disabilities, and also pushing for speech and language therapy services.

The Government recognises, as Deputy O'Dowd has said, that waiting times for speech and language therapy have posed significant difficulties for families and their children. However, I can advise the Deputy there has been a reduction of almost 8% in the overall numbers waiting for speech and language therapy services over the period December 2015 to September 2016. Furthermore, there has been a reduction of over 18% in the numbers waiting for more than eight months for speech and language therapy services over the period November 2015 to September 2016. The enhancement of therapy services for children and adults has been the subject of particular focus in recent years and has benefited from the investment of significant additional resources. In 2013, additional funding of €20 million was provided to strengthen primary care services and to support the recruitment of prioritised front-line posts. As part of this initiative, the HSE recruited for more than 260 additional posts for primary care teams. This included 52 speech and language therapist appointments. Since 2014, the roll-out of the programme for progressing disability services for children and young people up to 18 years entailed targeted investment of €14 million and the provision of 275 additional therapy staff including 88.5 speech and language therapists. I am advised that in 2015 four speech and language therapy posts were allocated to Louth under this programme.

There are currently 21 directly employed whole-time equivalent speech and language therapy posts in Louth covering primary care and social care. Nationally, the primary care and social care division also indirectly supports a number of voluntary agencies which employ additional speech and language therapists to deal with the lists. The combined staff see and provide services to approximately 21,000 patients per month. In addition, in 2016 development funding of €4 million was provided to focus specifically on speech and language therapy waiting lists in primary care and social care for children up to 18 years old. This funding represents a long-term increase in speech and language capacity. This investment is enabling the HSE to fill 83 new recurring posts in primary care to address waiting lists, prioritising the longest waiting children. I am advised that three posts have been allocated to Louth under this initiative. Each additional whole-time equivalent will provide capacity, on average, to undertake 800 initial assessments or 1,400 therapy appointments per annum. When the 83 positions are filled, the number of speech and language therapy staff in the HSE’s primary care and social care services will be close to 700. The HSE aims to ensure the resources available are used to best effect to provide assessment and ongoing therapy to children and adults in line with their prioritised needs. Along with the significant investment in recent years, a range of new approaches have been developed and used in many speech and language therapy services. The HSE has established a national therapy service review group to address therapy waiting lists, including speech and language therapies. It is anticipated the group will have completed its work by the end of March 2017.

As Deputy O'Dowd says, it is not acceptable to have children like that on waiting lists for speech and language therapies. I will bring the Deputy's message directly back to the Minister and the HSE.

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