Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)
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196. To ask the Minister for Health the additional resources, whole-time-equivalent staff, and positions provided for in budget 2016's new measures that commit to an additional €8 million spend on therapeutic services for children, including speech and language therapy, in tabular form. [41117/15]

Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)
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The Government is committed to the provision and development of services for children with special needs, including early intervention services, and to improving access by these children to therapy services insofar as possible within available resources. Health related therapy supports and interventions for children, such as speech and language therapy, can be accessed through both the HSE's primary care services and its disability services, depending on the level of need. Significant additional resources have been invested in recent years in the State’s primary care and disability services with a view to enhancing therapy service provision.

Additional funding of €20m was allocated in 2013 to strengthen primary care services and to support the recruitment of prioritised front-line posts, including over 260 additional posts for Primary Care Teams. In addition, the HSE has introduced a number of initiatives specifically in relation to speech and language therapy services that are aimed at improving access to these services, such as therapists increasing clinic based work and providing family centred interventions in a group, as opposed to a one-to-one setting, whenever possible.

The HSE is also currently engaged in a major reconfiguration of its existing therapy resources for children with disabilities into multidisciplinary geographically based teams, as part of its National Programme on Progressing Disability Services for Children and Young People (0-18 years).The key objective of this Programme is to bring about equity of access to disability services and consistency of service delivery, with a clear pathway for children with disabilities and their families to services, regardless of where they live, what school they go to or the nature of the individual child’s difficulties. An additional €4m was allocated in 2014 to assist in implementing the Progressing Disability Services Programme, equating to approximately 80 additional therapy posts. Further investment of €4 million (equating to €6 million in a full year) has been provided this year to support its ongoing implementation.

Improving access to therapy services for children in primary care and in disability services is a particular priority for the Government. Within this context, additional funding of €8 million is being provided in 2016 to expand the provision of speech and language therapy through primary care services and to support the reorganisation and expansion of speech and language and other therapies under the Progressing Disability Services Programme. Full implementation of the Progressing Disability Services Programme is expected before the end of 2016. The HSE has been asked to prepare detailed proposals on the employment of this additional resource.