Finian McGrath (Dublin Bay North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I will make three short points. First, I recognise what the Senator has said about delays in accessing speech and language therapy being a source of significant concern for parents. We are trying to act on that. Second, as Senators including Senator Conway may be aware, funding for additional therapy posts for children's disability services was announced in budget 2019. As I speak, these posts are being rolled out. These posts will support the completion of the assessments of need and will increase the number of therapeutic interventions provided. I am confident that the additional resources committed by Government and the HSE's reform programme will lead to significantly improved services for children requiring speech and language therapy. However, I cannot isolate one sector of society, even though I am a parent of a daughter with Down's syndrome and was chairperson and treasurer of the Dublin branch for many years. We have to treat everybody, right across the disability sector. People with speech and language difficulties should be given priority.