Dáil debates

Thursday, 29 March 2018

Other Questions

Speech and Language Therapy

11:10 am

Photo of Thomas ByrneThomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I think the Minister has let the cat out of the bag. This is not what I had been envisaging. The Minister referred to a "demonstration project", which is certainly a change from the programme for Government. He has not said in which schools it will take place or where it will take place. Moreover, the model that seems to be envisaged is not a replacement for the health service or therapy for children, but instead seems to be the National Educational Psychological Service, NEPS, model, whereby NEPS comes in and gives advice to teachers as to how to deal with children, rather than giving the therapy itself.

If that is what the Minister is envisaging for speech and language therapy, we will not be supporting it in schools. What we want is a vision of a model for speech and language therapy in a school setting, not a model where professionals come in and train teachers in how to identify problems. That is not what we had in mind when we put this in our manifesto, when we raised questions about it and when we saw it in the programme for Government and were happy with that. That is not it at all. The Minister is seriously barking up the wrong tree on this one if that is what is envisaged. It is not acceptable.

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