Ms Noeleen Smith:

I might come in on the transport issue. I am going to contradict my earlier response. In County Cavan, we are doing well with autism classes in our primary schools, but we keep banging on about how early intervention is the key because that is the case with autism. Nevertheless, what we are lacking in Cavan and throughout the country is early intervention classes, which are vital. One child attends an early intervention school in Mullagh, about one hour away from their home town, and they have to take a bus there every day because it is the nearest option. The school is fantastic and the child has been doing really well, but we need a lot more of these services, especially for children at the age of three or four, before national school. Sending them off on a bus for an hour at three or four years of age is not right and is hard on the parent.

When it comes to national school, it is up to the parent of the autistic child to ring around schools looking for a place, which is not easy. Every autism class holds only six kids, so it is not easy to find a place and parents must ring around every school years before the child starts school. I know of one parent who visited a school and there was a little boy asleep at the time in a dark room. The principal told the parent that the child has a nap every day when he comes in because he gets up so early to travel to school. In my experience, and that of many parents to whom I have spoken, it seems to be all about funding and the quickest route to school, or using a bus that already passes the school and can pick up the child. In the case of one little girl who was starting school, Bus Éireann agreed that she would be picked up from her house and brought to school, but she would have to wait in the taxi because it was bringing some older kids to a secondary school and she would be too early for her school. She had to sit in the taxi with a man for 20 minutes before the day started. This was a child with autism sitting in the back of a taxi for 20 minutes. It seems it is all about money and not about the child's need.