Johnny Mythen (Wexford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Page 40 of the programme for Government has a section on supporting our healthcare workers. The Government commits to recruiting additional front-line staff, including speech and language therapists. There are more than 1,000 people waiting for an assessment by a speech and language therapist in Wexford. Some 606 of them have not even had an assessment yet, 460 are awaiting therapy and 179 of them have been waiting for over a year for their therapy. I know that the Covid-19 emergency has slowed down services but this does not excuse people waiting for over a year. We have heard locally that nine speech and language therapists are on maternity leave in Wexford. How will the HSE cover this shortage and when will recruitment start?

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