Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Fitzpatrick for his support for the scheme. The scheme was recently announced as a demonstration project. It is to run in the next school year, 2018-2019. It involves 75 primary, post-primary and special schools and 75 preschools, making a total of 150 settings. They will all be in community healthcare organisation region 7 of the HSE, that is, south-west Dublin, Kildare and west Wicklow. The schools selected will be from that region, which, I understand, was selected because it contains a mix of urban and rural schools, disadvantaged and advantaged schools, special education schools and so on. It was also important that the pilot be carried out in an integrated area in order that it could be supervised and overseen effectively by the HSE, my Department and the Department of Children and Youth Affairs.

The numbers involved are 19 speech and language therapists and 12 occupational therapists, who will be recruited by the HSE to work with the schools and preschools. The National Council for Special Education, NCSE, will recruit two national co-ordinators to manage the project, which will bring together therapists and education professionals, who, as the Deputy rightly says, have often operated separately until now. The programme will support earlier intervention in the case of speech and language and occupational therapy and within educational settings. The pilot will ensure that the work of teachers, special needs assistants and, indeed, parents, will be integrated with that of therapists for maximum benefit. Obviously, we must assess whether the pilot works. I think many of those who are expert in the field believe this will be a win-win in terms of both delivery of the speech and language and occupational therapy and the educational setting. However, the programme will be closely monitored. If it is successful, we will obviously look at extending it further.

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