ANNE GERAGHTY,
Madam, - The Irish Association of Speech and Language Therapists (IASLT) is very concerned that speech and language therapy posts currently vacant have been frozen by a number of health boards as part of cost-saving exercises.
Waiting-lists for speech and language therapy services are unacceptably long in most areas of the country due to a combination of chronic under-funding of the service and the shortage of personnel. In some areas children are waiting more than a year for an assessment and three years for therapy to begin.
The impact of a communication disorder on the social, emotional and educational development of young children is well-known. Adults who have communication disorders due to strokes, head injuries, degenerative neurological conditions, cancer or fluency problems may not be able to access speech and language therapy at all.
Yet despite the documented need for the service, speech and language therapy posts have been frozen. Although there is a national shortage of speech and language therapists, it is still possible to recruit, but in some instances, interviews have been held and the posts will not be filled as employers attempt to manage budgetary deficits.
It is somewhat ironic that at the same time as sanctioning the establishment of three new training courses for speech and language therapy students in UL, UCC and NUIG which will increase the number of university places by 75 a year, the health service is freezing existing and development posts.
In the European Year of People with Disabilities it is acceptable that the already limited speech and language therapy services for people who have communication disorders are further curtailed. - Yours, etc.,
ANNE GERAGHTY, Chairperson, Irish Association of Speech and Language Therapists, Gardiner Place, Dublin 1.