A Sinn Féin TD has called for urgent action over waiting lists for children's speech and language therapy, citing HSE figures showing 6,170 children waiting to begin initial treatment.

Pearse Doherty, the party's spokesperson on finance, raised the issue in the Dáil on Tuesday, reading out a letter from a grandfather whose three-year-old grandson is non-verbal and awaiting therapy.

The grandfather, aged 52 and on dialysis three times a week, wrote that he would be willing to stop his own treatment if it meant his grandson could receive speech therapy.

Doherty said he had since spoken to the man and advised him to continue his treatment, but said the case highlighted a wider failure in community care.

He pointed to HSE figures showing that in the Clare and Limerick County service area, 305 children are waiting for speech and language therapy, with the longest wait for an assessment in Clare at 91 weeks.

In Donegal, 28 children were waiting for initial therapy, with the longest assessment wait at 44 weeks.

Doherty said families who cannot afford private therapy have no alternative but to wait.

He called for more therapists, clear waiting-time targets and monthly publication of community-care waiting lists.

Sinn Féin has proposed legislation requiring the National Treatment Purchase Fund to publish those lists.

Doherty acknowledged that 24,000 people had been removed from therapy waiting lists by the end of July, but questioned how many of those children actually received treatment, saying removal from a list is not the same as care being delivered.