Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Senator for giving me the opportunity to come before the House and discuss this. I also thank the families who work closely with her in continuously campaigning. I acknowledge the tireless work of the Dublin 12 campaign group. That group has responded practically, as the Senator said, in putting good solutions in place within the community.

Last June, I, along with the then Taoiseach, Deputy Micheál Martin, the Ministers, Deputies Foley, O’Gorman and Donnelly, and the Minister of State, Deputy Madigan, met the heads of the National Council for Special Education, NCSE, and the HSE. At that time it was Bernard O’Regan, Damien McCallion and Anne O’Connor, who has since left. I am not sticking entirely to the script because I want to give context to answer some of the Senator’s questions. It was agreed to reinstate therapists in schools. We were allocated funding of €13.5 million to reinstate 136 therapists. They were to be the priority therapists and that was to start in September. Unfortunately, the HSE had to engage again with the unions and that took some time.

The school the Senator referenced is one of four new special schools in the country. Perhaps there was not an understanding of what was in the background or the needs to be provided for. It was agreed that, at a bare minimum, 35 hours would be returned directly to the Senator’s school as a starting point. For the Senator to tell me the psychology is 2.5 hours beggars belief. Psychology in the school, at a bare minimum, was to be 12 hours. It was to get 11.5 hours of OT and 11.5 speech and language as a starting point, not an end point. The therapists were to be on site.

With regard to Our Lady of Hope in Crumlin, I am advised the school has been allocated OT and psychology and it is the same across the other four schools. Danu is another school in Dublin. Carrigaline is another school, and Rochestown as it comes on stream. That was the starting point.

It is intended the psychology posts will start in the Senator’s school on 17 April. Nobody has told me otherwise, other than what the Senator has relayed this morning. My understanding is 12 hours' psychology is to go into the Senator’s school as one third of the full-time 35 hours to start with. I will take up what the Senator has said. She is right. With the new school there is a fantastic service but it needs to be operationalised. The parents and teachers are not therapists; they will work to the guidance given to them by the trained clinician. Recruitment is a problem. There is no shying away from that but the HSE, to be fair, has gone out to doing external recruitment. I am tirelessly speaking about an assistant OT, an assistant speech and language therapist and an occupational therapist who can stay in that school, deliver therapies and be the continuous intervention required. The HSE needs to act at pace. While we need the clinicians to write up the programmes, we need the assistants to be full time in the schools. We can do that. This is the direct solution that is required. I will continue to work with the Senator in ensuring that happens.

Have I a deadline for all these therapists to be in the schools? It was supposed to have happened by the end of January. We need to see all therapists by 1 September, with a commitment to all the principals as to what they can expect to see.