Alan Dillon (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for his response. I know he is committed to addressing the challenges and shortage in our therapies and practitioner sector around health. As a former Minister for Health, he will be acutely aware of the challenges being faced within the different sectors. It has been widely reported that access to speech and language therapy is essential. I know of one community in Achill that does not have access to these services for young children. We must ensure that child developmental difficulties do not worsen in the early stages, so access to these services is crucially important. We must also increase the number of clinical placements available in different sectors. The Minister talked about dentistry and other practitioner areas, but also included must be the disability and mental health sectors to ensure students get the necessary experience in this area. It is good to hear that 20 additional placements will be available for the coming year. I ask that this provision be even further expanded in 2024. Can the Minister give a commitment that additional work will be done, that is horizon scanning exercise will happen in May and that it will be reported on without any further delays?

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