Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

As I have repeatedly stated, it is my job to seek funding for the HSE through the good offices of the Ministers, Deputies Donohoe and Michael McGrath, and then to operationalise that funding. For the past two years, I have been successful in the funding I have acquired. While I am grateful for that, it is disheartening to secure enough funding for 475 posts but for it not to be operationalised on the ground. I was disturbed to discover recently that the HSE did not have a pay grade for behavioural therapists. Section 38 and section 39 organisations do. I am grateful that Mr. Reid has taken on board this issue and I hope to see behavioural therapists as part of my plan.

Funding is available, so this is not a resource issue. We need to consider a more agile approach. I am working with the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, Deputy Harris, on trying to create more third level spaces, but let us be realistic, it will take three to four years for those places to come on board. This is why the critical skills list is important, as is an examination of what is being produced in Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK in terms of speech and language services. From what I gather from CORU, only two modules are missing. Why not recruit those staff but train them in those two modules while they are in place? The main dearth of delivery is in speech and language therapy. We need to consider a more agile approach that works with the universities across the Border that are producing speech and language therapists and creates opportunities for them. I have also discussed assistant psychologist posts and funding and supporting assistant psychologists in education as a way of encouraging them into the service.

It is important that we return our teams to their maximum capacity. Until such time as they are at least 90% staffed, we cannot train young people coming through college because there will not be proper clinical oversight.

A great deal is happening and I hope that I will be able to answer the Deputy better within the next four weeks.

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