Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am sorry I am late. I was in the Dáil and am just coming in to join the meeting now. I have been listening to the debate for the past few minutes. I have read Dr. Morgan's opening remarks as well. The biggest issue with disabilities and children is that not every child is the same and the culture of putting children into specific categories does not seem to work because what can help one child may not constitute the measures that will be helpful for another child, and this creates a difficulty for parents.

The other big issue I come across a lot is that people talk about early intervention, early intervention, early intervention. Then there is follow-on from when children are, say, six years of age. They go from the early intervention into another service and there seems to be a gap in the service - perhaps not a gap, but the stepping stones are not there. It seems that when they are finished with that, it is a case of "somebody else will deal with you after this". That happens again at age 18 or whatever. The difficulty is that we probably do not have the resources to provide a tailor-made service for each individual child. In the ideal world, what more do the witnesses need to make sure we do things right for all the children? The submission states that PDS will do certain things. However, when it states "will do it", how can we see the tangible results coming through such that there are more therapists and clinicians on the ground in primary care centres dealing with these children who need the help? One of the greatest traumas is for parents to find out there is something wrong with their child, whether autism or whatever else, and a lot of stuff goes over their heads for a while. Then there is denial on the part of parents for a while, which I myself have seen, because this is their nightmare. What is the witnesses wish list to make the service better and to have more resources? What are their big asks?