Róisín Garvey (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Speaking in public is a very difficult thing. I find intimidating and I have been a Senator for the past two and a half years. The first autism unit was started in my village of Inagh about 25 years ago. I am trying not to get very emotional. I am standing by a friend of mine, Dr. Susan Crawford. Dr. Crawford and her father started the first autism unit 24 years ago and she is still fighting every day for her son's rights. What disgusts me is that it never gets better. It just changes as they get older. It is never the case that she finally gets the resources and things are sorted. There is always another thing because her son is developing and growing older, which is despicable. A friend of mine became a lawyer because she was so sick of fighting for her son's rights. She studied law at night so she could fight for her son's rights, which is also disgraceful.

I am really embarrassed as a politician that the witnesses have to deal with this on a daily basis. We all know it is hard to rear a child at the best of times so I am deeply embarrassed that the witnesses have had to come here and put their laundry out to dry in the public arena to give us some inkling as to what it is really like for them. I will not make any promises because the witnesses have probably heard them all before. This committee gives me some glimmer of hope. Perhaps the next step is to get the Minister for Education and the Minister of State with responsibility for special education to come before the committee so we can finally get answers because we could go on just talking about these issues forever. It is great having a talking shops but it does not help the witnesses in any shape or form. I will make no promises but will try to do better at attending this committee.