Joe Flaherty (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I commend the Minister of State on her work to date and on the enthusiasm with which she meets the challenges relating to her very busy portfolio. Following on from Deputy Tully, the Minister of State will probably know what I am going to raise. I will be very parochial about it. The Minister of State has visited the children's disability network team in Longford. It is fair to say there is a crisis there. We have scheduled staff of 9.5, with 4.5 vacancies and 0.8 of a speech and language therapist position has been recruited through agencies. On the whole, the team it is operating with less than half the staff required. On 1 June, there were 786 children assigned. One in four children still await autism diagnoses. The current average wait time is 2.5 years. Thirty seven children have been waiting more than four years for autism diagnoses. I appreciate what the Minister of State is doing about recruitment, but that is a crisis. I was struck by one of the comments to the effect that autism presents bespoke challenges. We all agree that no two diagnoses are the same in autism but this is a crisis that needs a bespoke solution. We have put a proposal to the Minister of State in the context of putting therapists into schools and taking the pressure off team 8. Will she provide an update on that proposal?

I know the Minister of State is working, as in Cavan, on an overnight respite solution for Longford. Can she provide an update on that?

I am very pleased to see that her team has engaged with special education, and with the staff in Malta. It is a benchmark for what we should be doing. We have all been contacted by parents who have been unable to access the summer programme. Her team will be aware that Malta runs an 11-week programme. We are passed the time when schools can opt out of providing the summer programme. Will she give an update on how she intends to challenge that?

The Minister of State will be aware of the issues with the summer camp in Longford. Traditionally, it would have used the facility in Cavan. That was booked out by other counties and it was not available to them. They are looking to put a plan together for August. It is regrettable that it has been farmed out to Bluebird, a third-party care agency, and that the service is less than adequate. If anything, it is disrespectful to the parents but more importantly to the service users. I have given the Minister of State a lot to deal with.