Eoghan Murphy (Dublin South East, Fine Gael)
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To ask the Minister for Health if a graduate programme for speech and language therapists will be introduced in 2013. [10242/13]

James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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The Government has decided that the numbers employed across the public service must be reduced in order to meet its fiscal and budgetary targets. The health sector must make its contribution to that reduction.

The Department of Public Expenditure and Reform agreed to a nurse graduate initiative on the basis that it would deliver significant savings through displacement of agency and overtime expenditure.

I have no plans at present for similar graduate programmes for other health professions.