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

I thank the Minister of State for her reply. The root of the problem is that the demarcation between education and health is far too rigid. I question whether that is the reality of the experience of parents. As the HSE is not able to provide the one-to-one therapy, it is moving to group therapy and is encouraging and supporting parents to do drills, supports and activities. We have 19,000 SNAs and we increase that number by 1,000 each year. We have been successful in developing that service. There is not a high exit rate and there is not a problem with filling the posts we are assigning. If the problem is that we cannot fill the therapeutic posts for the foreseeable future, we need to look at whether we can develop a way in which therapists would work with SNAs and resource teachers to provide parents with a better context within which they can support their children. I do not see a prospect of the three-year wait being suddenly reduced. The effort was found to be faulty by the courts. Maybe the existing law is out of touch with the reality of trying to develop services in this area. I would go back to my original request. There needs to be a root-and-branch look at this, rather than the current approach where the two Departments stick to their demarcation lines with one recruiting speech and language therapists and the other recruiting SNAs and never the twain will meet. The pilot was a very good and optimistic route. I admit that it will not solve the problem for every child. However, it would allow us to reach more children and reserve precious therapeutic time for the children who need it most. I strongly advocate looking again at this whole context and framework.

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