Ms Sarah Murphy:

I am sorry that I keep going back to the issue of complex needs. For example, in Bray, Bray Lakers is a very good service and it provides an after-school activity. It has an hour class here and an hour class there. However, I cannot bring my son to that because he will not go in. This is particularly the case if there is an intellectual disability with autism and with other things as well, in particular a moderate intellectual disability. He needs stability, routine and predictability. School provides all of that for him.

I have tried every special group. I said I wished I lived in Cork because the Rainbow Club sounds great. Everybody does little bits here and there. I tried special needs rugby, soccer, Bray Lakers and everything else. I have tried every group out there to try to progress, but he does not have the capacity. It is so stressful for him and for me trying to get him to do these things.

We have schools everywhere in the country. Every town, city, county and village have schools. That is what he loves. He loves school. Schools run all day and this allows me to work. I am a single parent and this allows me to work to earn the money to pay for everything like we all have to do. We already have a lot there. We just need to tweak the school system. While I am all for the extra clubs too, many complex needs children cannot access those clubs, just like they cannot access home-based provision. The Department states all the time that one can get a home-based tutor if one cannot get the July provision in school. However, there is so much about being in school, such as getting on the bus and all the minutiae of life that is important to people, both children and adults, who do not really understand because they do not have the intellectual capacity. We build this life for them that they can enjoy and that they can progress in but we have to do it within the boundaries of what works, so introducing lots of new things like a tutor, for example, for home-based provision does not work for my son and for many children with complex needs. It is so stressful. He could not tolerate a stranger in the home. We could not have him going on an outing, for example, with a tutor. He is 6 ft., he is a massive, they would be terrified that he would run off and there would be safety issues. He is not really verbal so he could not say if anything went wrong.

The GAA and soccer clubs all get money. All these mainstream social groups get money to provide a service, which is great for the kids who can access that. However, there are a number of children, mine included, who have an autism and intellectual disability, ID, diagnosis along with other issues and who cannot access that. That is what happens with summer provision. There is a lot of money going into it, but the people and families who really need it are not able to access it.