Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 69: To ask the Minister for Health and Children if he has proposals to meet in full the speech and language requests at all primary schools here; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [44559/08]

John Moloney (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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The Department of Education and Science is responsible for the statutory provision of education in Ireland. There is no requirement under the Disability Act, 2005 to provide speech and language therapy services in primary schools.

Under Part 2 of the Disability Act 2005, children under five years have been entitled to an assessment of their disability needs since 1 June 2007. In preparation for the roll out of the Disability Act to older age groups and pending the implementation of the Education for Persons with Special Education Needs Act, 2004 increased funding has been provided in recent years to the Health Service Executive to increase therapy supports to school going children.

In 2008 additional funding of €9.8M was provided to the HSE for the creation of 140 multi disciplinary posts, including speech and language therapists, to enhance the provision of services for people with disabilities. In Budget 2009, an additional €20m was allocated for health and education services for children with special educational needs. €10 million of this allocation will be provided to the Health Service Executive (HSE), and €10million to the Department of Education and Science. It is intended that this additional funding will enable the services provided to children with special educational needs to be enhanced and strengthened. The additional €10m allocated to the HSE will provide for 125 additional therapy posts in the disability and mental health services, targeted at children of school-going age. This will provide an additional 90 posts in the disability services area, to include speech and language therapists, occupational therapists, physiotherapists and psychologists for children's disability services. There will be 35 additional posts for the child and adolescent mental health services, including clinical psychologists, occupational therapists and speech and language therapists for new and existing multidisciplinary teams.