Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 13 November 2025
280. Deputy Gillian Toole asked the Minister for Education and Youth the results of recruitment campaigns by the Health Service Executive and National Council for Special Education for healthcare professional roles (details supplied), in tabular form. [62589/25]
View answerThe Education Therapy Support Service (ETSS) was established in June 2024 within the NCSE, comprising of 39 therapists, providing 2 strands of support, Regional Therapy and Sustained In-School Therapy. Officials from my department have engaged with colleagues in National Council for Special Education (NCSE) who provided the following details regarding recruitment.
|
Therapist Posts |
Number of posts |
|
Occupational Therapy Managers |
2 |
|
Speech and Language therapy Managers |
2 |
|
Senior Grade Occupational Therapists |
12 |
|
Staff Grade Occupational Therapists |
3 |
|
Senior Speech and Language therapists |
14 |
|
Staff Speech and Language therapists |
5 |
|
Total |
38 |
As outlined in the Education Plan and the Programme for Government, it is this government’s ambition to extend therapy supports within the education system.
It is anticipated that the ETS will commence in 45 special schools at a later stage in the 2025/26 school year will be supported by a panel of 90 therapists comprising of senior and staff grade. The NCSE is currently preparing a large-scale recruitment campaign which is anticipated to go live in the coming weeks. Further roll out of the service will occur on a phased basis.
Separately, my Department through Public Jobs recently concluded a recruitment campaign for educational psychologists and successful candidates are currently being appointed to the National Educational Psychological Service (NEPS).
My department would not hold information of recruitment campaigns carried out by Health Service Executive.
