Olwyn Enright (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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Who is taking the Adjournment matter?

John O'Donoghue (Kerry South, Ceann Comhairle)
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The Minister of State at the Department of Health and Children, Deputy Mary Wallace.

Olwyn Enright (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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I am disappointed the Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Harney, did not remain in the House for another five minutes to listen to this issue because it is important.

We have just had a vote about protecting the vulnerable in society and this is another issue whereby the vulnerable are being made pay for the waste of this Government. Eight primary schoolchildren from across counties Laois and Offaly attend St. Colman's national school in Mucklagh outside Tullamore for the specific purpose of attending a speech and language class. Some of these children, particularly those from County Laois, leave home at 8 a.m. and make a two-hour round trip because this is the only speech and language class for their age group in these two counties. Their parents made a difficult decision in choosing to take them out of the far more convenient local schools in which they were settled but in which they did not have the assistance they needed. Their schools could not give them the intensive therapy they required.

On average each child gets the opportunity of only two years of such intensive therapy. They get it because they were assessed as needing this assistance by both an educational psychologist and by a speech and language therapist. They need it because, without it, despite having average IQs like every other child in their schools, they will not be able to read, do mathematics or access the school curriculum. Some of these children started in St. Colman's only last September.

Last Friday the parents of each child received a letter from the Health Service Executive telling them that the speech and language therapist is to commence maternity leave at the end of October. I hasten to add that she is perfectly entitled to do this. However, there will be no cover for her when she leaves next week. When the speech and language therapy manager applied to the HSE to recruit a locum to help these children that permission was denied. From next week, therefore, these eight children who attend this special class will be taught by their regular teacher and will have no speech and language therapy.

We have been told time and again by this Government that frontline services will not be cut and that the vulnerable will be looked after. It seems, however, that this Government cannot resist the chance to give the vulnerable a kick at every opportunity. These children have already received therapy in clinics in counties Laois and Offaly but it was found not to work for them because of the level of their difficulty. That solution is not an option for these children. They have a lifelong disorder but can achieve full and active participation in education and in life if they get the help they need.

Their therapist will be absent for the remainder of the school year and these children will only have received seven weeks of therapy in the 2008-09 school year. This is an utter disgrace especially when one considers there are plenty of unemployed speech and language therapists around the country who could do this work. Instead of helping this vulnerable group of children, the Government and the HSE have chosen to assign them to exclusion and isolation. They are excluded from the help they need and also excluded from the ability to read, to learn and to participate. They are excluded from the very act of being able to communicate.

The Department of Education and Science pays to transport these children to this school for the specific purpose of getting this service but the service will not now be available in the school. What stage have we arrived at when we cannot even cover maternity leave and ensure that these children get the help they need? How can such a cruel decision be made? Two therapists in counties Laois and Offaly will go on maternity leave next week. The other person is attached to the Midland Regional Hospital in Tullamore and her leave is to be covered by a locum. What is the difference between the two? Why cannot the leave of the person in the school be covered? What happened to the supposed commitment to community care?

The Government has the opportunity to reverse this decision and the lives and futures of eight bright young people and their families depend on it. I ask the Minister of State to reverse the decision and provide these children with their full and assessed entitlement to this service.

The Minister for Finance, Deputy Lenihan, is just leaving the Chamber. He said today that he had learned from the medical cards controversy but this decision shows that he has not done so. As Minister of State in the Department of Health and Children, Deputy Moloney will be aware that a similar situation pertains for another group of children in Portlaoise who are also affected. Much of their therapist's leave fell during the summer, however, so they lost three months of therapy. This is still significant when only two years are provided.

The State will pay more for this decision in the long term in terms of the costs incurred by these children missing out. However, what they will have lost is incalculable. I hope the Minister of State will be able tell these eight families tonight that their children will get a proper speech and language therapist and that the woman who is to go on maternity leave will be able to take her leave knowing the children for whom she has worked so hard will receive proper care.

Mary Wallace (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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The Deputy is referring to the forthcoming maternity leave of a speech and language therapist who provides services to children in the speech and language disorder, SSLD, class in Mucklagh national school, County Offaly.

As the Deputy may be aware, an arrangement currently exists between the Department of Health and Children and the Department of Education and Science to provide school-based speech and language therapy to children via attendance at a specific speech and language disorder class. These classes are based in mainstream schools and usually have a pupil to teacher ratio of 7:1. Speech and language therapy is provided by arrangement with the Health Service Executive and the therapy delivery is integrated with the educational provision. There are currently 54 specific speech and language disorder classes in the country.

Currently the only model of intensive speech and language therapy provision available to children with specific speech language impairment, SSLI, is through attendance at a specific speech and language disorder class.

Olwyn Enright (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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That is the problem.

Mary Wallace (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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Children attending such a class do so on a full-time basis, for an average of two years.

The HSE has informed the Department of Health and Children that it has consistently endeavoured to prioritise the provision of speech and language therapy to children with speech and language delay or disorders. This prioritisation of speech and language therapy is evidenced by an increase in the number of speech and language therapists employed by the HSE from 498 whole-time equivalents in December 2004 to 733 whole-time equivalents in September 2008.

Olwyn Enright (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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Do the children in question not deserve to be prioritised?

Mary Wallace (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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With regard to the temporary vacancy arising in the specific case raised by the Deputy, the Health Service Executive is required to work within its current overall approved employment ceiling and the financial resources available to it. The ability of the executive to provide locum cover in this instance must be considered in that context.

Olwyn Enright (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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The Government's cut excludes and isolates the children in question. It is pathetic.