Mary Upton (Dublin South Central, Labour)
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Question 112: To ask the Minister for Health and Children if she has plans to retain qualified physiotherapists in this country; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [45513/08]

Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)
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There has been a growing demand for, and investment in, physiotherapy 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%.

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 of physiotherapists employed has also grown significantly, with 593 whole time equivalents employed in December 1997 compared to 1,429 whole time equivalents employed in September 2008, which represents an increase of 141%.

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, with an additional 35 posts being provided for child and adolescent mental health services.

In addition, certain key health and social care professional posts, including physiotherapists, 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, child and 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.