Tom Clonan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate that, and I appreciate that is a frank response. It aligns with my experience that it is of low priority. Apart from giving out about this, there is a responsibility on people like me to try to be a part of the dynamic that persuades those in positions of power to actually have the political will to drive this thing forward. I will try to finish with something positive. When I started on this journey with my son, purely by accident of circumstances, we were met with hostility ten years ago at the first contacts we had with officials. In the Administration of 2016, Finian McGrath was Minister of State with responsibility for disability issues, which was a novel appointment, it went from hostility to listening to you. I think with the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, there is evidence somebody is there who is genuinely trying to get to grips with the problems. I think from the attitudinal, philosophical or cultural perspective, we are probably moving in the right direction. However, I feel there is a tsunami of crisis in the community. Notwithstanding the research we know there are thousands of people who are not at risk but who actually are in that space. As the clock ticks and the months go by and we go from Hallowe'en into Christmas, there are children aged between four and eight who are lost because they did not get that intervention. We should be ashamed of ourselves. We are failing them.