Cork principal: deaf students will lose out if their speech and language therapist is not retained

Wednesday, 7 April 2021 12:30

34 students at St Columba's National School in Douglas receive speech and language therapy two mornings a week,

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 they would iron out difficulties."