Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I do not have any metric other than my constituency office, but the scheme has been very well received. Having talked to my local authority, Galway County Council, I know it has been well supported. For me, what brought to light the value of a sensory room, if the Chairman will indulge me for a moment, was on Sunday night last, when I was watching "Room to Improve" and the value of sensory rooms was addressed. The little man on the programme went into the sensory room in the family's house and was able to regulate himself. Ordinary viewers watching the programme would not have understood this unless they had experience and understood what life is like for a child with sensory needs. We could see the value of that room and how the family could continue to function because they had the space to accommodate the room.

It is welcome that the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage has now seen fit, thanks to the Minister, to qualify sensory rooms as a need, and I expect there will be greater take-up of that now. It is also important, however, that local authorities, within their housing stock, would acknowledge we need to build that capacity in to some of it. In the past, for a husband and wife and two children, local authorities would say they were entitled only to a two-bedroom house. Perhaps where there is a sensory need, we will need to designate another room as the sensory room. Local authorities need to be open minded about meeting the needs of the family.