Lack of college therapy places angers parents

PARENTS of autistic children have accused the Government of reneging on promises to tackle a shortage of therapists.

In a joint statement last May, Health Minister Micheál Martin and then Education Minister Michael Woods promised 175 extra professional therapy training college places for students to come on stream this academic year.

However, only 25 undergraduate physiotherapy training places have been created at the University of Limerick (UL). A further 25 undergraduate places for speech and language therapists and 25 undergraduate places for occupational therapists promised for both University

College Cork (UCC) and National University of Ireland Galway (NUIG) have not materialised.

Neither have 50 postgraduate places for speech and language and occupational therapists in UL.

The manner in which the Department of Education is proposing to get the courses on stream by the next academic year has also angered parent groups.

The National Parents and Siblings Alliance (NPSA), an umbrella body for 52 parent groups representing children with mental handicap and autism, has been told by the Department of Education that because the courses did not come on stream this year, they will begin as second year courses in the next academic year.

“They are talking about offering students who have completed one year of a general science degree an opportunity to take up therapist training in second year,” said NPSA outgoing chairman Seamus Greene.

“I am concerned about how that would work out, how do they know they will be able to attract the students from general science to fill the therapy places? It is not what the ministers promised. The best way to describe their proposal is airy-fairy.”

Spokesman for the Irish Progressive Association of Autism (IPAA) Kieran Kennedy said the ministers’ promise in May had been ‘nothing but a publicity stunt’.

A spokesman for the Department of Education said talks were ongoing with the Higher Education Authority (HEA) to try and get the courses up and running. He said the proposals to take on second year students was to make sure the output of trained therapists would meet the timescale set down by the ministers.