Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

This is simple. The Bill was originally introduced by the former Minister for Health, Dr. James Reilly. It fell. We reintroduced it because we felt that, if we were to follow the European Charter of Rights for Persons with Autism, we needed to enshrine the rights of people with autism in law. The challenge for this committee is to amend the Bill as drafted. We have tabled some amendments and there are others than can be tabled on the basis of what we have heard at this meeting and what other members would like to do. At the end of the day, if we do not have the rights of people with autism enshrined in law, we are not adhering to the charter. We should not be afraid of having legislation that protects the rights of people with autism.

Senator Clonan spoke as a parent with lived experience. I have received a number of emails in the past three days from parents and others who are trying to manage autism within their family situations. They articulated the pressures they were under. We can talk all we like about strategies, working groups and steering groups, but these people have rights, which we must enshrine in law. That is the purpose of what we are trying to do.

Senator Clonan asked legitimate questions. How are we going to achieve this? We cannot wait until we have it right and then introduce legislation. We must introduce the legislation first. As Deputy Naughten stated, it is because of legislation introduced in the past that certain services are being delivered now.

Since I made my presentation at the start of the meeting, I have been listening to the failures in the system, as pointed out by Deputy Dillon and Senator Clonan. That is the system not working right. We are failing people with autism. We need to step up to the mark and legislate in line with the European charter so that we have legislation to protect children and their families. That is my simple approach to this. The Department has the amendments we submitted to it. This is beyond politics. This is about getting something done that we can stand over and where we can say we did something right. The Regional Group wants to get this right.