Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy. While the provision of clinical therapy supports to children is the responsibility of the HSE, it is the Government’s ambition to make sure therapies are provided in schools. This was committed to in the programme for Government and it is to build on the work being done through the Department of Education, with a number of teams already in place within our schools through the education therapy support service, ETSS, working in conjunction with the National Council for Special Education, NCSE. At the moment, 39 therapists are working in schools to build the capacity of teachers and other school staff, as well as working with students and children. The ambition now is to make sure we can roll out a programme across the board, starting with special schools but the ambition is very much to move to special education classrooms as well. This will be done through the NCSE. It will be the employer and, most important, children will receive direct therapies and supports in schools, including from occupational therapists and speech and language therapists, and a whole community response will be taken. It will not just be direct supports for young children. Teachers will be provided with the training, resources and supports they need, parents will be included in this and there will be a whole-of-school approach.

Work has started on this. We have held a number of Cabinet committees where the Minister of State, Deputy Michael Moynihan, and I have met and engaged with the Departments of children, disability and health as well as the Department of further and higher education to make sure we are able to provide the therapists while at the same time complementing the work of the child and disability network teams, CDNTs, and the other therapists in the system providing support to everyone else. We need to increase the places. The Minister, Deputy Lawless, is working closely with the Minister for Health to make sure we can double the number of therapist places in our universities. That is a clear commitment we gave in the programme for Government. The work is under way to make sure we have that steady flow and capacity within the therapy professions overall. This is an absolute priority for the Minister of State, Deputy Moynihan, me, the Department and the Government.

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