Ms Noeleen Smith:

We are very fortunate to have a brand new autism classroom in our local school in Ballyjamesduff. That is where my kids go. The teachers are doing their best. They are all doing their autism training and so on but they are teachers rather than occupational therapists, speech and language therapists or psychologists. The kids are not getting those services. The teachers are spending too much time trying to be occupational therapists rather than teaching. It is a disgrace that these children are not getting these therapies because they are not reaching their potential. These kids are smart. They are as smart, if not smarter, than any other child but they are not being allowed to reach their potential because, as I have said, they cannot just sit in the classroom. I was at a parent-teacher meeting for my own child a couple of weeks ago. She has a lot of sensory issues with noise and so on. The teachers have to bring her out of the room when there is anybody else there. They do not know how to fix that. They are there to teach Aoibhinn her ABCs and everything else. They are not there to be occupational therapists.