Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick East, Labour)
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Question 216: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Health and Children the progress which has been made recruiting speech and language therapists; the number of unfilled posts in each of the Health Service Executive regions; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [13398/06]

Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)
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The Deputy's question relates to the management and delivery of health and personal social services, which are the responsibility of the Health Service Executive under the Health Act 2004. Accordingly, my Department has requested the parliamentary affairs division of the executive to arrange to have this matter investigated and to have a reply issued directly to the Deputy.

The Deputy may wish to note, however, that additional investment in speech and language therapy services in recent years, coupled with enhancements in the professional training, career development and remuneration of these therapists, have led to significant improvements in staffing levels. These developments are in line with the recommendations contained in the 2000 report of the expert group on various health professions, which included new pay scales and enhanced career structures.

In general, developments such as pay increases, improvements in career structure and enhanced opportunities for professional and career development have all supported increased staffing levels for key health and social care professions, including speech and language therapists. The implementation of the pay recommendations of the public service benchmarking body made a further important contribution to recruitment and improved retention. The continued implementation of the action plan for people management, a key action under the health strategy, has a crucial role in improving retention and reducing turnover of skilled staff.

The success of all these measures have contributed to an increase of 162 speech and language therapists, or 42% over the number employed by the end of December 2000, and reflects significant increases in the numbers employed in promotional grades. There were 548 whole-time equivalent speech and language therapists employed in the public health service by the end of September 2005.

In addition, three new speech and language therapy courses commenced in the 2003-04 academic year in UCC, NUIG and UL. In total, these courses provide an additional 75 training places in speech and language therapy. This expansion in training numbers was identified in the Bacon report of 2001, current and future supply and demand conditions in the labour market for certain professional therapists, as sufficient to meet the long-term demand-supply balance for speech and language therapists in Ireland. The first graduates from the two year masters course in UL completed their studies in June 2005. The first graduates from the BSc courses in UCC and NUIG will graduate in 2007.

Essential to the successful roll out of these additional training places is the provision of sufficient quality clinical placements in speech and language therapy. The revenue funding I have provided this year, along with that allocated in the past two years for the three therapy professions, totals €4.6 million. It is expected that approximately 30% of this amount will go towards the speech and language therapy profession and will enable the Health Service Executive, working with my Department, to put in place the enhanced structures necessary to ensure that students will have access to a sustainable, high-quality clinical training model.