Mary Upton (Dublin South Central, Labour)
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Question 108: To ask the Minister for Health and Children if her attention has been drawn to the fact that there are a number of recently graduated physiotherapists, speech therapists and occupational therapists who are unable to secure employment due to the Health Service Executive recruitment freeze and the stalling of the primary care strategy, that a significant increase in college places for these courses was recommended by the Bacon report and subsequently approved and that the current employment situation is bleak for recently graduate physiotherapists, many of whom are forced to emigrate to seek employment in this area; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [40366/08]

Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)
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There has been a growing demand for, and investment in, physiotherapy, occupational therapy and speech and language therapy services over the last number of years. There were a number of issues contributing to difficulties accessing therapy services, one of which had been the supply of qualified personnel available to fill vacant posts. A particular priority for my Department and the Department of Education and Science in recent years has been the expansion of the supply of therapy graduates. The Government has also invested heavily in the education and training of such personnel in order to secure a good supply of graduates to provide for the healthcare needs of the population into the future. In this regard, since 1997, the number of training places for physiotherapy has been increased from 64 to 145 which represents an increase of 127%; the number of training places for speech and language therapy has been increased from 25 to 105 which represents an increase of 320%; and the number of training places for occupational therapy has been increased from 29 to 120 which represents an increase of 314%.

Almost 130,000 people work full-time or part-time in our public health services. In recent years, the Government's ongoing high level of investment in health has achieved and maintained significant increases in the numbers of doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals employed in the public health services. The numbers employed in the therapy grades have also grown significantly, as follows:

The Government is committed to ensuring continued adequate recruitment of professional staff across a range of community settings to ensure the continued development of community services. Additional funding of €20 million has been provided in 2009 for health and education services for children with special educational needs. This funding will provide a total of 125 additional therapy posts in the HSE targeted at children of school-going age. 90 of these will be in the disability services, including speech and language therapists, occupational therapists, and physiotherapists. 35 additional posts will be provided for child and adolescent mental health services, including clinical psychologists, occupational therapists, and speech and language therapists for new and existing multi-disciplinary teams.

In addition, certain key health and social care professional posts, including speech and language therapists, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, clinical psychologists, counsellors and social workers, are to be protected by setting employment floors for these grades within the Health Service Executive (HSE) in 2009. These posts are essential to the development of a number of services areas such as disability (including speech and language therapy), child adolescent mental health services and child protection services. In order to protect these posts, my Department will be writing to the HSE setting out the minimum employment levels to be maintained within each of these occupations in the health sector in 2009. The recruitment and retention of these key front line professional posts is vital to ensure continued progress in the development of community settings.