The Hard Shoulder is calling on the Government to Give Them A Voice .
In recent weeks, the show has been highlighting the waiting lists for speech and language assessments and therapies, as well as the impact any delays can have on the development and education of children.
In highlighting these issues, the goal is to ensure a better service for the children who desperately need these services.
Newstalk under the Freedom of Information Act revealed that a total of 16,466 children are on the waiting list for their first assessment with a speech and language therapist.
More than 3,500 children are waiting over a year for a first assessment, with over 500 children waiting at least two years.
Newstalk’s Kacey O’Riordan reported about how the Holy Family School for the Deaf in Dublin was on the verge of losing their on-site speech and language therapist.
This week, the principal and parents of St Columba s National School in Douglas - which has a deaf unit with 34 children - have been speaking about how they suddenly lost their speech and language therapist who came to the school two mornings a week.
Triona Fitzgerald, the principal of St Columba s, said: “I don’t think they set out to remove a resource. I think [in] rolling out this service - which in general and in theory will be really good - they didn’t stop to think.
Cork principal very relieved to hear school will be keeping speech and language therapist The Junior Minister for Disability Anne Rabbite announced in the past few minutes that the HSE have been ordered to stop removing specialists from schools.
St Columba s National School in Douglas has 34 deaf and hard of hearing students among their pupils and had been told they would no longer have the services of a speech and language therapist two days a week.
The HSE s Progressing Disability Services Programme has now been paused and will be reviewed following an outcry from teachers and parents.
Speaking to RedFM News in the past few minutes Triona Fitzgerald from St Columba s says she s delighted by the move:
Cork principal: deaf students will lose out if their speech and language therapist is not retained
However the school has now been told that the service will be provided in local community settings.
Principal Triona Fitzgerald says the HSE s new Disability Services for Children and Young People programme was meant to streamline the provision of services, however she says it will actually make life more difficult for some students and their families.
Speaking to RedFM News, Triona outlines her concerns: The whole new disability service is to be fair for everybody and it s meant to be easy for parents, easy access, it s meant to be based on people s address of where they live, but for the children who come from all around Cork city and county, I think that s going to provide difficulties. They weren t thinking of the children who travel long distances to school when they brought out this model, I think. And I was told that at each stage of the rollout of the model that