I will now take Leaders' Questions under Standing Order 29. I draw everyone's attention to the fact that the House in its wisdom has decided to apply time limits to these contributions. We will start with Deputy Micheál Martin.

I want to raise with the Taoiseach the appalling waiting times and waiting lists for children who wish to access therapy services such as speech and language therapy, physiotherapy and occupational therapy. Children from the earliest age do not have access to such therapists. That is the reality of where we are today. For example, Deputies Cowen and Fleming highlighted recently that in counties Laois and Offaly, 400 families with an autistic child cannot access therapy services while 950 children are waiting for occupational therapy in County Laois where the average waiting time is 47 months. A child referred at five years of age, therefore, could be ten before he or she receives treatment. In north Mayo, there are 86 children waiting for therapy services with 60 being high priority. There have been 101 referrals for speech and language therapy but there is no full-time therapist. A number of Members met representatives of Scoil Cara in Cork earlier this week. Its enrolment has gone from approximately 20 children with autism to 60 children. There is no multi-dimensional therapy team in that school. With regard to occupational therapy assessment nationally, more than 5,690 are waiting on under 18 therapy services with in excess of 3,000 waiting for more than a year for such an assessment.

The situation is not acceptable and is not tenable. The existing HSE model of progressing disability services for children and young people is a failed model and it is the wrong model in my considered view. I have put this forward for the past 12 months as did my party's education team.

In my view the schools should be employing the therapists on school campuses either in one school or in clusters of schools and there should be a holistic multidimensional teams working with teachers and psychologists on the school campus. We are light years away from that; in fact, the opposite is now happening where teams are being taken from the special schools as part of the HSE's reconfiguration of services.

Has the Deputy a question?

The bottom line is that we need a fundamental step change in how we provide basic therapy services to children of preschool and school-going age. What has been going on over the past number of years is just not on. The system does not get it. Parents are extremely frustrated at what is going on in terms of getting basic access to vital therapy services because early intervention is the key to a child achieving his or her educational and developmental potential. We are failing as a society to provide that in any meaningful form.

Thank you Deputy. The time has elapsed.

Will the Taoiseach accept that it is a crisis and that the current model being deployed is wrong?

First, I accept that this is not a satisfactory situation. The programme for Government recognises that we should be able to deal with this at school level. The Minister was contacted by the Laois-Offaly group in respect of this. The programme for Government commits the Government to improving services and increasing supports for people with disabilities, particularly for early assessment and intervention for children with special needs. Yesterday the Government made a decision to increase the number of special needs assistants to 12,900 but these special needs assistants, while they do a brilliant job, generally impact on the physical needs of children in classes. We have never had an analysis of the outcome in terms of the quality and the impact of those interventions by those people. The vast majority of them do a first-class job. The Government also, as the Deputy is aware, has a proposition and has made a commitment to reduce the pupil-teacher ratio for junior and senior infants by providing smaller classes, which will give an opportunity for teachers to recognise that there may be particular challenges with young people in this regard.

The Minister of State, Deputy Finian McGrath, is a dedicated and experienced person in dealing with disabilities and he now has responsibilities for disabilities as a Minister of State. In the past 18 months the roll out of the HSE's Progressing Disability Services for Children and Young People programme has targeted investment of €14 million and the provision of 275 additional therapy staff to increase services for children with all disabilities, including children with autism. The key objective is to achieve better access and consistency of service delivery for children and young people with disabilities and to develop a clear path to services regardless of where they live in the country, where they go to school or the nature of the individual difficulties a child may have.

I point out also that in the programme for Government we have decided to deal with the question of the use of county boundaries for access to health and social services; that will be reviewed independently - as the Deputy is aware, these matters stop at the county boundary for some reason dating back to the past - to ensure that the most efficient and the most cost effective service is provided to those who need it. As announced by the Minister of State, Deputy Finian McGrath, and the Minister, Deputy Zappone, this morning, Wednesday, a new scheme to ensure access to early childhood care and education programmes for young children with disabilities is commencing this September and we will ensure that further development of this initiative follows through. An amount of €4 million has been allocated this year for additional speech and language therapists for this age cohort. It will not deal with the backlog that Deputy Martin pointed out but it is an important start in that regard. An education providing access earlier to children and adults to speech and language therapy makes a vital difference to their future opportunities in life. We want all those opportunities for them.

Thank you Taoiseach. The time is up.

It will introduce a new in-school speech and language service creating stronger linkages between parents, teachers and the speech and language therapists.

It is a very honest satisfactory reply but it is depressing because the Taoiseach answered a whole lot of matters except the question I asked him. I asked him directly about therapists. We need a step change regarding therapists in this country. I did not ask about special needs assistants. That scheme started in 1998 and thousands were employed ever since and there will be annual increases. I am talking about access to speech and language therapy, physiotherapy and occupational therapy. We need to get those therapists into the schools and employed on the campus. We need to change the model. The Taoiseach has quoted the progressing disabilities programme to me. With respect to the progressing disabilities programme and policy, in 2014 they announced 275 additional therapists with 88 meant to be speech and language therapists. How many were recruited?

It is now 2016 and only 27 have been recruited. We took a step change in 1998 in terms of automatic responses and pupil-teacher ratios and we need a similar step change in terms of access to therapies in our schools. What is going on is a scandal and parents should not be put through any more of it.

I thank you, Deputy Martin. That is fine. An Taoiseach.

I earnestly say to the Taoiseach that he should scrap all of that stuff that they gave him.

Deputy, please.

Go and talk to Deputy Finian McGrath and a few others and stop just making announcements and all of that.

Time is up, Deputy Martin.

Let us get some real actions on therapies in the next year or so.

The fact of the matter, which Deputy Martin understands, is that I mentioned the increase in special needs assistance because that has always been the fall-back position-----

Never.

-----when in fact it might have been much more appropriate if other interventions were made there like speech and language or occupational therapy. The point I am making is that with reduced class sizes for senior and junior infants, with special need assistants where they apply, and with teachers, one can identify at an earlier stage whether a child has a particular difficulty or not.

And do what? There is a long waiting list.

If the Deputy is suggesting that we get rid of them, that is not what I am suggesting at all. What I have announced today with the Minister, Deputy Zappone, and the Minister of State, Deputy Finian McGrath, is a new service with increased funding and an extra allocation of €4 million this year to start in September.

That has nothing to do with what I have asked. It will do nothing in terms of therapies.

This is not something that has happened overnight, but it is recognised in the programme for Government and is something that will be delivered on.

One would know the Taoiseach was in government for five years previously.

It will not do anything for therapists.

It is an important element of opportunity and ambition for young children and to address the stress that occurs for their parents.