Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Like many Deputies, it breaks my heart when I meet parents who tell me about problems such as fighting for an assessment of needs and services for their children. I have been following up regarding CHO 7, the area covering south Dublin, Kildare and west Wicklow, and the school age team. One of the replies I received was that there are 298 children on the Dublin south west school age team waiting list, a further 18 children are awaiting transition from the early intervention team to the school age team, the waiting time for the school age team is 41 months and is growing monthly because the team does not have the capacity to safely take on additional cases and there has been no movement in the waiting list for the past ten months. That is a terrible indictment. Families cannot access those assessments of need, which are crucial when it comes to entering school, and are forced to get private assessments and private hearing and language therapy. This is supposed to be provided by the State. The Government is failing these children. It is good to see that in many areas, groups of parents are coming together in solidarity to start campaigning for support for their children. Parents in areas like Dublin 8, Dublin 10, Dublin 12, Dublin 6 and Dublin 6W have done this in response to the Government's failure to provide that. I spoke to a woman from the Dublin 12 group who told me that four of the children in her group did not get access to ASD classes or an ASD school. They are aged six and seven while there are two five year olds. Three of them got preschool through home tuition while one is still at home. As a public representative, I cannot stand over accepting that a child is at home because he or she cannot get access to a class or special school.

I have tabled questions about Scoil Colm, Armagh Road, Crumlin a number of times. This school building is vacant. The parents concerned have approached the Edmund Rice Schools Trust, which has told them there would be no problem with having an ASD-specific school there. The parents approached the principal next door where there is a special school that does not take in children with ASD. He was reluctant. I am trying to figure out who is responsible for deciding that an area needs an ASD-specific school. Is it the NCSE or the Minister? Who is responsible for it because these parents cannot get past that level? They do not know where to go to raise the issue.

There are some very good points here and I support the motion. I particularly support Sinn Féin's amendment calling on the Government to immediately establish the all-party Oireachtas committee on autism, as agreed to on World Autism Day. That has not happened. It was supposed to be set up in six months but it has not been. To allow a collective response from the Dáil and the parties and groups in it, the committee should be set up very quickly. The Government should compile statistics on how many children are still not in school and the number of children requiring an assessment of needs in an area in order to match those children with local school units and special schools.

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