Mr. Mark O'Connor:

It is a difficult issue and I agree with everything the Deputy said. I am aware of many of the issues that pertain in his constituency. Even as recently as last week, I met with a group of parents from Involve Autism. Those parents are in Dublin 2, Dublin 4 and Dublin 6 and the service provision for their children is virtually non-existent. That brings me back to the fact that the Minister has asked the NCSE to prepare reports on those schools and on what kind of provision is there. That has not happened because of Covid-19. One might argue that it was not happening anyway and it should have happened in years gone by but it has not happened because of Covid-19.

I refer to the waiting lists for vital therapy services. Going back to what was said earlier, the research shows that people will always make gains in life with treatment but children with disabilities have a golden window of opportunity between the age of three and six where significant gains can be made. As my colleague, Ms Dempsey, said, many of these therapists have been put into contact tracing and Covid-19 testing and so forth, which is vital work.

We urge, however, that those folks be redeployed because in Ireland we seem to have flattened the curve. What that will tell us, however, is that waiting lists have just got longer and longer. While in an ideal world these therapy services should be delivered face to face, we have engaged with various therapists to provide information to families on our Facebook Live page as to what they can do during the Covid period. These guys are at the forefront of physiotherapy, occupational therapy and psychology. Some of them say a lot of this can be delivered virtually because in a lot of the programmes they deliver, if they are familiar with their patient or a child experiencing their services, they can give instructions and exercises to the parent, who can then go and carry them out. The waiting lists certainly have not improved during the Covid period. They were diabolical to begin with. If, however, there is proper innovation through proper telehealth, many more children will be able to be seen than have been previously.