Martin Conway (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I agree with the sentiments expressed by Senator Darragh O'Brien regarding the Inclusion Ireland report on speech and language therapy in this country. Those sentiments are correct. Nobody in this House would stand over the appalling record with regard to dealing with young children at an extremely important and vulnerable age in their lives to ensure that they get the best start. Indeed, I was even more troubled to discover that the situation in the Clare, Limerick and north Tipperary area is particularly concerning. There are 18 speech and language therapists for the mid-west area and instead of dealing with a caseload of 50 each, which would be the appropriate number of cases to be dealt with by a speech and language therapist, they have an average of 203. If one is meeting 203 people on an ongoing basis, one will barely remember them, let alone remember the detail of each specific case. This situation is now at a crisis point.

I urge the Leader to arrange an urgent debate with the Minister for Health on the matter. It might not be practical to invite the Minister to the House today, but it would be practical, and indeed necessary and imperative, that the Minister for Health would come to the House in early course to deal with it. It is only when figures such as these are released and there is a realisation of the appalling situation people are in that action sometimes happens. Various speech and language therapists will tell us about their specific caseloads and how difficult and challenging it is to deal with them, but it is only when the situation is chronicled on a national basis that one can see that children in Clare, Limerick and north Tipperary are not getting the same service as children in other areas. That is contrary to the Disability Act 2005, the Act governing this area.