I am disappointed at the Minister of State's response to Deputy Perry's case for St. Edward's national school in Sligo, which I had the pleasure of visiting on one occasion.
I raise this problem because it concerns the case of a young boy aged three years who has been on the waiting list for speech therapy assessment since June 2000, that is, 15 months ago. He is unable to talk, deeply frustrated and, arising from this, has all sorts of problems. When his parents came to me they had been told that they had no chance of having their child assessed by a health board speech therapist before January next year, three months from now, or a year and a half after their child was originally put on the waiting list.
His parents told me that they had been advised that County Meath has the worst and longest waiting list for speech therapy assessment in all of Ireland. They had looked at the possibility of having their child assessed by a private speech therapist, but were told that this would be very difficult, almost as difficult as staying on the waiting list for the public service because therapists in the private sector tend, for financial reasons, to concentrate their work on insured adults such as stroke victims for whom there is insurance recoupment by the likes of the VHI. Private sector speech therapists are not, therefore, available for or generally specialised in the assessment of children who for the most part are, therefore, forced to rely on the public service.
I propose that this matter be dealt with in three ways. First, more training places for speech therapists should be provided. Second, a sufficient number of speech therapists dedicatedly available to deal with the problems of children should be ensured. Third, all waiting lists for speech therapy should be consolidated.
The waiting time for children for speech therapy in County Meath is about a year and a half, as I have illustrated, whereas in Dublin it is only six months. That is wrong. The child about whom I am concerned lives only three miles from the Dublin border, but because of those three miles was asked to wait a year longer for assessment by a speech therapist than he would have had if he lived three miles further in the direction of Dublin.
The story to which I am referring has had a sequel. After I had tabled this matter I was informed by the parents that they had eventually succeeded in having their child privately assessed by a speech therapist as a result of their own totally unaided efforts. They were told at this second assessment that while the child does have a cleft palate, he has a range of other problems unrelated to any speech or hearing problem. If they had not been able to find this out themselves, their child would have had to wait until next Jan uary or February to have the extra care needed provided for him.
This case illustrates the deep-seated problems that exist as far as children with special needs are concerned, and I hope my raising of this matter today will lead to action by the Minister.