Cathal Byrne (Fine Gael)
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I congratulate the Minister of State, Deputy McConalogue, on his appointment and wish him the very best of luck in the role. I have no doubt we will have plenty of engagement over the coming term.

I submitted this Commencement matter on foot of a constituent contacting me in the New Ross town area to advise me of the difficulties they were having in getting access to speech and language therapy for their child. I was advised by the HSE in response to representations I made that at present all three of the allocated speech and language therapy posts are vacant. The HSE has allocated one senior staff speech and language therapist and two staff-grade speech and language therapists. At the moment, a boy or girl in New Ross town or the wider New Ross area does not have access to a designated speech and language therapist in his or her own area. It is important to highlight this issue. It is completely unacceptable.

I understand there are recruitment challenges across the HSE regarding speech and language therapists but we have to put in place a mechanism to allow for situations where the designated posts available in a town for speech and language therapy are not filled. There has to be a contingency plan put in place. Everybody understands it can be difficult to get staff but there has to be a plan B. Maybe it is that children whose designated speech and language therapists are not available are allocated to a neighbouring area, or perhaps there is something similar to the private treatment purchase fund whereby the parents can take their children to a private speech and language therapist and it is covered by the State.

This is a failing. Everybody knows that early intervention is crucial in the area of speech and language therapy. They need access. If you have had an assessment of need and the report says you need speech and language therapy, early intervention is crucial. Unfortunately, as time passes, the needs of the children increase. Unless there are targeted measures in the New Ross area, this situation will continue. I ask for greater clarity. Will the Minister of State raise with his officials the urgent need for a contingency plan so boys and girls in the New Ross area have a mechanism to access speech and language therapy?

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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I thank Senator Byrne. Congratulations to him on his election and indeed to Senator Brady beside him. It is a great honour to be elected to the Seanad.Both Senators, and Senator Higgins, know better than anyone it is a very difficult election so congratulations to all and best wishes for the term ahead.

I thank Senator Byrne for raising this matter. It is important to state the Government and Minister of State for disabilities, Deputy Naughton, are fully committed to providing the necessary services to enable any child with a disability to reach his or her full potential. Both the Government and the HSE are committed to further progressing and enhancing children's disability services in the State. As the Senator will be aware, one senior speech and language therapist, SLT, post and two staff grade SLT posts have been allocated to the children’s disability network team, CDNT, area in New Ross. Regrettably, the senior SLT post and one staff grade SLT post are currently vacant, while the staff member in the filled staff grade SLT post is currently on statutory leave.

There are ongoing efforts by the CDNT to recruit into these posts with the senior SLT post recently being accepted and currently in the HR pre-clearance process. Unfortunately, however, no expressions of interest have yet been received for either of the vacant staff grade SLT posts. As an interim measure the CDNT is currently providing cross-cover SLT services for the purpose of providing urgent feeding, eating, drinking and swallowing difficulties support. Universal supports are also available to children in the CDNT such as a workshop on supporting your child's feeding, and sensory pathway and understanding autism supports.

I acknowledge the difficulties faced by children and their families seeking to access the services of CDNTs, in New Ross and across the country. The continued development and support of our 93 CDNTs as they seek to ensure equitable access to services for all children with complex needs is a priority for the Government. The Government is committed to addressing the underlying recruitment and retention issues to fully staff each team to maximum capacity. These challenges are reflective of the issues affecting the wider health and social care sector.

The HSE national recruitment service continues to explore a range of options to enhance the recruitment and retention of staff to CDNTs. To optimise recruitment into funded agencies, the HSE is facilitating direct access for funded agencies to existing HSE health and social care professionals, HSCP, panels which will shorten the recruitment process and will provide direct access to competent and eligible candidates. Officials will work with the HSE to seek to introduce specific recruitment and retention incentives for therapists to work in CDNTs, along with a CDNT sponsorship programme with bursaries for fourth year and postgraduate students linked to acceptance of conditional job offers. In addition, placements on CDNTs will continue to be expanded alongside a continued expansion in the number of places in higher education to increase the pipeline of future therapists. Measures will also be provided to assist with sustainably addressing the assessment of need backlog while freeing up resources available to provide therapeutic supports to children with complex needs. In addition, some bespoke initiatives designed to provide specialist supports for children with complex needs will be supported.

While recruitment and retention of staff to CDNTs remains a considerable challenge, I affirm Government’s commitment as well as that of the HSE to exploring all avenues to improve access to CDNTs for children and their families in New Ross and across the country.

Cathal Byrne (Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister of State for his response. I very much welcome the fact the senior SLT post has been offered and is going through the pre-clearance checks at the moment. I wish whoever takes up that position the very best of luck in the role. I ask the Minister of State to bring back to the Government the fact the two other posts are currently vacant. While I appreciate the efforts being made in the recruitment to speech and language posts both in New Ross and across the country and the commitment to deliver that, I ask for it to be treated as an urgent priority. As I said earlier, early intervention is crucial when it comes to speech and language and the reality is that, today, the three posts are vacant. I very much welcome the fact the senior post will be filled.

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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I again thank Senator Byrne. I assure him that, as I have outlined, the Government will continue to work with the HSE to take every step possible to try to ensure the posts are filled. It is not an issue of will or funding; the funding, the desire and the commitment are there. There has not been an expression of interest so far for a couple of those posts I outlined. We want to see the posts filled. It is a particular issue in New Ross. It is also an issue in many other parts of the country, including my own. To address that, we need to see a much stronger pipeline, so steps are being taken with the regard to training and those coming through and qualifying because that is crucial to ensure all of these positions are filled. The Senator is absolutely right that early intervention is crucial. None of us, particularly parents, want to see a child not get the speech and language support whenever they need it. Collectively, we all have to press to try to make progress as quickly as we can. I thank the Senator for raising this matter on behalf of his local CDNT, of parents and of children in his area of New Ross. Following this morning's Commencement matter, I will certainly relay to the Department the points he made and the priority needed to backfill those posts.