Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent)
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To ask the Minister for Health the reason there are no community-based adult speech and language therapists in Kildare and West Wicklow in view of the surplus of graduates from SLT courses here; the measures he will put in place to address the imbalance in the way speech and language therapists are deployed around the country using the surplus SLT graduates who are looking for work; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14434/13]

Alex White (Dublin South, Labour)
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This Government is committed to reforming our model of delivering healthcare so we can reduce the cost of achieving the best health outcomes for our citizens.

The implementation of the Primary Care Strategy continues to be a priority for this Government. The objective is to develop services in the community which will give people direct access to integrated multi-disciplinary teams of general practitioners (GPs), nurses, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, speech and language therapists and others.

An allocation of €20 million has been ring-fenced in the 2013 National Service Plan to enable recruitment of 250 posts to strengthen primary care services. The posts will be filled using the Resource Allocation model, based on deprivation and need, which was developed by the HSE's National Primary Care Office and Health Intelligence Unit. Using this model, the HSE completed a detailed analysis of the numbers and distribution of Public Health Nurses (PHNs), Registered General Nurses (RGNs), Occupational Therapists (OTs), Physiotherapists (Physios) and Speech and Language Therapists (SLTs). The analysis revealed considerable variation across the 17 Integrated Service Areas in ratios of health care professionals to population, and to population numbers in areas of high deprivation.

Based on this analysis, it proposed that in addition to PHNs, RGNs, OTs and Physios, the following Speech and Language Therapist posts would be recruited to Primary Care Teams across the four HSE regions as follows:

- Dublin Mid Leinster to get 22 Speech and Language Therapists (SLTs);

- Dublin North East to get 13 SLTs;

- The South to get 4 SLTs; and

- The West to get 7 SLTs.

It is my firm intention, along with the Minister for Health, to have these posts filled as soon as possible in 2013.

As the specific issue raised by the Deputy regarding Kildare and West Wicklow is a service matter, I have asked the HSE to respond to the Deputy directly as soon as possible.