Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael)

To answer the last question first, ensuring that children have access to the therapies they need is absolutely my priority and our priority as a Government. It is for that reason that my colleague the Minister, Deputy McEntee is continuing the work that myself and the Minister, Deputy Foley did when we were in the Department of Education on special education with in-school speech and language therapists and occupational therapists going in to our special schools. That will also alleviate the demand for these therapies across the country. We are also looking at increasing the clinical placements in CDNTs and developing that pipeline of initiatives to ensure we retain and attract more therapists.

In our third level institutions 150 extra speech and language and occupational therapist places were provided from last September. We want to increase that number every year. The Minister for higher education, Deputy Lawless, is working very hard on that. This is a real concerted effort by the Government to ensure that children and adults have access to the therapies they need.

I cannot give the Deputy a definitive timeline but I assure him we are working really hard to try to ensure children get access to these therapies.

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