SPEECH AND language therapists need to be more flexible in their work practices to address the lengthy waiting lists for children seeking assessment, the Dáil has been told.
Taoiseach Brian Cowen acknowledged that "the provision of such services has been a problem for some time".
"One of the issues was a shortage of graduates of speech and language courses, but we have doubled the number of graduates."
He said there was a need for flexibility in work practices because new graduates "must be supervised by a senior staff member for the first years immediately after qualifying. We must determine why that should be the case."
The Taoiseach said "the way work practice issues are operated within the system is the reason we are not getting the outputs we would expect for the resources we are allocating".
Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny had complained that "in Dublin alone 4,000 children are now waiting for speech and language assessment".
"There is further discrimination within that because it matters where a child lives.
"In Dublin north, the waiting period can be as low as three months, whereas in Dublin south it can be 31 months and in Dublin west 33 months."
Mr Kenny said "there is no cohesion, streamlining or delivery of the service".
He added that he could not "overstate the importance of early intervention and delivery of service for children who are so afflicted".
"It is absolutely critical. If early intervention does not take place, the consequences are a lifetime of self-consciousness, speech impediment and under-performance."
Mr Cowen said they had to determine why "newly qualified graduates cannot be released to do their job more expeditiously than is currently the case".
That issue "must be addressed in the context of a more flexible response".
However, Mr Kenny said that "there is no point telling the parents of children with speech and language difficulties that we have doubled numbers of qualified graduates".
Those graduates could not get jobs because they did not have any experience.
"We are currently preparing the most costly form of human export. The graduates will not hang around. They will go to countries where they can get jobs."
