Maria Corrigan (Fianna Fail)

I welcome the Minister of State and particularly his commitment that the money allocated to disabilities and mental health will be spent in that area. For far too long, these areas have been seen as easy targets when the HSE sought to offset over-spending in other areas. I welcome the commitment of the Minister of State and am delighted that we will no longer experience the situation that occurred earlier this year.

Since 1997, Fianna Fáil-led Governments have demonstrated concrete commitment to people with disabilities. This has been manifest in many ways, including the introduction of multi-annual funding, the national disability strategy that was recently incorporated into the new social partnership agreement, Towards 2016, and the establishment of the Office for Disability and Mental Health. Increased funding since Fianna Fáil came to government has meant more opportunities for day programmes, residential and living options, greater supports in education and an increased number of special needs assistants and therapists. For example, in regard to special needs assistants, the number working in our schools has increased from 300 in 1997 to more than 10,000 today.

The issues confronting people with disabilities cannot be rectified with funding alone but require a combination of funding, policy, legislation and attitude change. The establishment of the Office for Disability and Mental Health offers us an enormous opportunity to co-ordinate these requirements. This office brings together responsibility for a range of policy areas which will improve co-ordination between service providers and the various Departments. These directly impact on the daily lives of people with a disability and people with mental health issues. As the Minister of State outlined, the office will aim to bring about improvements in the manner in which services respond to the needs of people with disabilities and mental health issues. It will do this by working to develop person-centred services and, I hope, person-led services focusing on the holistic needs of clients and service users and, crucially, involving them in their own care.

I do not wish to repeat the many points made by colleagues but rather to focus on two aspects, namely, an increase in the number of therapists and the role of the National Educational Psychological Service and school leavers with mild intellectual disability. As a psychologist specialising in the area of disability and mental health, I particularly welcome the commitment in this budget to allocating an additional €20 million to this area. This will result in a range of additional therapist posts from speech and language therapists to occupational therapists to physiotherapists to psychologists. This funding will be allocated between the HSE and the Department of Education and Science.

In seeking to provide increased funding for therapists and having ensured that funding, a number of issues must be addressed, namely, their training, recruitment and employment. Undoubtedly, in recent years, the Government, through increasing the number of training places for therapists, has laid the foundation for them to be recruited. It is essential, however, if we are to seek to recruit therapists into the area of disability, that their training incorporates a knowledge of disability and, where appropriate, placements in disability services.

Recruitment and employment in the area of disability is an ongoing challenge. Senator O'Reilly referred to a physiotherapist of whom he is aware who is on a panel but anecdotal information and my experience suggests that while we saw an increase in therapist positions, we did not necessarily see the same increase in the number of applications for vacancies within disability services. This arises as an issue for a number of reasons. Since there is not as much exposure to, and training in, the area of disability during training, there is perhaps not the same awareness of working within the area of disability and of the enormous job satisfaction that can be found through working with people with disabilities. It is essential that this is addressed and that we examine the reasons for the difficulties in recruiting therapists to work within the area of disability.

I refer to one of the impediments we should seek to address and in which the Minister of State's office could play a role. Anecdotally, we hear from therapists that they would like a case mix, that they do not want to work solely in the area of disability and would appreciate the opportunity to work a couple of days in disability and a couple of days in community services. If we want better co-ordination of services and if we want to fill the vacancies, we should be able to adopt a much more flexible structure. It is important we demonstrate a commitment to continuous professional development. That is important not only to attract and retain professionals but also to ensure the people in receipt of their services will receive excellent and continuously developing services.

I refer to the role of psychologists in schools and the National Educational Psychological Service. It is important that psychologists are not limited to assessments. They have much more to offer. It is very important in the school setting that we utilise their skills in training workshops for teachers, assistants and parents and give them the opportunity to work with groups of pupils. In that way, we will maximise their impact.

I am particularly concerned about school leavers with mild intellectual disability. They do not have the same opportunities afforded to pupils without a disability who will often go on to some form of third level education. A child with moderate or profound intellectual disability tends to be linked into an overall service. However, children with mild intellectual disability attending special schools or special classes often fall through the cracks as they come to the end of the school cycle because there is no automatic link.

I welcome the mental capacity Bill which I understand will be before us by the end of the year. There is an important role to play in preventing disability. Will the Minister of State keep in mind running an awareness campaign around vaccinations and the MMR? I welcome the fact that in these very challenging economic times, we were able to find additional moneys for services for people with disabilities.