Pauline Tully (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am extremely concerned about the future for children with additional needs in this country. In the past week, I have been informed of children who have been referred to primary care for speech and language therapy or for occupational therapy, OT. They have been told the waiting time to be seen is anything from 12 months to four years. One parent whose six-year-old son was referred by his teacher for speech and language therapy has been told the waiting list is 18 to 24 months. Another parent whose daughter, who is due to start school in September, cannot even say the names of her friends and needs speech and language therapy has been referred by her community nurse and is on a 12-month waiting list. Another parent of two children requiring speech and language therapy and one requiring occupational therapy has been told there will be a four-year waiting list. These situations all involve separate primary care centres within the county of Cavan but I am sure Cavan is not an outlier in this regard. What plans does the Taoiseach have in place to address this severe shortage? The staff are excellent but there are just not enough of them.

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