Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Tuesday, 12 July 2022
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Autism
Autism Policy: Discussion
Pádraig O'Sullivan (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source
I came across something here some weeks ago relating to early intervention classes. I believe there are 137 early intervention classes nationwide. It is clear that the majority of children who avail of those classes obviously would require a diagnosis. The difficulty is that if a child is three, four, five or six years of age, the chances are that he or she will not have received a diagnosis if he or she is on the public list. Those early intervention classes are therefore undeniably skewed towards people who can afford to pay for it. Does Mr. Harris see any solution to that other than possibly the State filling in and providing for it? The State should be doing it anyway but what is the solution to that?