Sinn Féin TD for Dublin South West Seán Crowe has said that the number of children awaiting Speech and Language therapy in the Dublin South West area has surpassed a scandal, with over a thousand children in the Tallaght area alone waiting on treatment and the average waiting time now an almost ten year wait for the Chamber House team.

Teachta Crowe said:

“Speech and Language therapy for children has been allowed to go beyond a scandal at this point. Recent figures from the HSE show that there are 1,151 children waiting on therapies in the Dublin South West area and that a four year wait is the best average that the HSE can provide.

“In the Chamber House CDNT 8 area, there are 376 children waiting more than four years and the HSE say that the average wait time to be seen by that team is a staggering 119 months, just shy of ten years.

“There are 23 children stuck on a waiting list in the Ballyboden centre that doesn’t even have any Speech and Language therapists on staff and hasn’t done for years at this point.

“How any government could allow such vital services to collapse entirely is beyond me. Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil are denying hundreds of local children the opportunity to fully engage with education and to have the best chance at interacting with their peers and the wider world.

“We are missing key deadlines in a child’s development and critical neuroplasticity windows that have huge consequences and lead to massive communication gaps as a child gets older. It is shameful and something desperately needs to change because this government clearly isn’t up to the task.”