Naoise Ó Muirí
Question:420. Deputy Naoise Ó Muirí asked the Minister for Education and Youth for an update on a matter (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [73311/25]
View answerThursday, 18 December 2025
Questions (420, 421)
Naoise Ó Muirí
Question:421. Deputy Naoise Ó Muirí asked the Minister for Education and Youth the timeline for when occupational therapists and speech and language therapists will be recruited from a recruitment drive to service children in several counties (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [73312/25]
View answerWritten answers
I propose to take Questions Nos. 420 and 421 together.
As reference in Parlimentary Questions 71494/25 and 71496/25, the Education Therapy Service (ETS) has been established, in line with the programme for government, as a critical and important support for children and young people in their school environment. The ETS is an additional support for children with special education needs. It is to supplement and not replace existing children’s health and disability services. It is intended to commence initially in specials schools and rollout over time to special classes and mainstream schools.
It is anticipated that the service will commence in 45 special schools at a later stage in the 2025/26 school year. Further roll out of the service will occur on a phased basis with a wider roll-out in special schools commencing in the 2026/27 school year.
The recruitment campaign for therapists to the new ETS, launched on the 28th November, campaign will initially see 90 occupational therapists and speech and language therapists consisting of staff and senior grades join their therapy team.
As this is a national service, starting with special schools, it will grow and expand to include all schools. It is envisioned that there will be rolling recruitment campaign commencing in 2026 covering all counties to meet the therapy needs of the children in the school system. It is envisioned that further recruitment campaigns will also include additional therapy grades including therapy managers, clinical specialists and therapy assistants.
As referenced in earlier parliamentary questions mentioned above, the NCSE have been developing an education -based therapy support service known as the previously as the Education Therapy Supports Service (ETSS), which will now be subsumed into the ETS. This service provides two strands of support to all schools: Sustained In-School Therapy and Regional Therapy Supports.
My Department and the NCSE are committed to ensuring, that in time, all children and young people have access to essential speech and language and occupational therapy in their school environment a timely manner.
Question No. 421 answered with Question No. 420.