Special Educational Needs Dail Éireann — 2020-10-14 ============================================================ Denis Naughten (IND), Roscommon-Galway Over the past three weeks, I have brought to the attention of the Taoiseach, the Minister for Health, the chief executive of the HSE and the Minister for Defence the scandal whereby existing front-line therapy staff, including occupational therapists, physical therapists and speech therapists, whose intervention can make a real difference to children's progression in our education system, are sitting in back offices making phone calls as contact tracers asking people whether they have been to the pub. I want these staff returned immediately to the vital role they play in supporting children. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2020-10-14/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:48:41+00:00 Sitting date: 2020-10-14