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Dáil
‹ Questions on Promised Legislation

Speech and language therapy waiting lists

Summary

Pat Buckley highlighted very long waits for children seeking speech and language therapy in CHO 4. The Taoiseach said he believed the issue related to the school pilot scheme and would ask the Minister for Education and Skills to reply in detail.

Under the prioritising early years programme, the Government committed to the establishment of a new in-school speech and language service to support young children as part of a more integrated support system. Today, I received the summer waiting list report from Barnardos. It describes the waiting times for children seeking access to speech and language therapy as extreme, with 548 young people waiting more than a year and a further 351 young people waiting for more than two years for speech and language therapy in CHO 4, which is Kerry, north Cork, north Lee, south Lee and west Cork. This is the longest waiting list in the country. When will the Government actually role out this programme in schools?

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Leo Varadkar The Taoiseach Fine Gael

I did not pick up all of what Deputy Buckley said, but I believe it was related to the pilot scheme in schools for speech and language therapy. I will have to ask the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Bruton, to write to the Deputy with a detailed response.

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