Paudge Connolly (Cavan-Monaghan, Independent)
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Question 926: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the number of third level places provided for speech and language therapy students per year; her proposals to address the shortage of speech and language therapists; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [10656/05]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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In May 2002, the then Minister for Education and Science announced the provision of 175 additional therapy training places to tackle shortages of physiotherapists, occupational therapists and speech and language therapists as identified in the report Current and Future Supply and Demand Conditions in the Labour Market for Certain Professional Therapists, which was undertaken by Dr. Peter Bacon and Associates in 2001 — the Bacon Report.

As part of this initiative, an additional 75 speech and language therapy places were provided at University College Cork, UCC, the University of Limerick, UL, and the National University of Ireland Galway, NUIG. Intake to these courses commenced in the 2003-04 academic year and all of the places were filled. The provision of these extra places has meant that the number of places on speech and language therapy courses has quadrupled from 25 in the 2002-03 academic year to 100 for the 2003-04 academic year.