Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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I thank the Chair. It does not come as any shock that a lot of the witnesses have autistic children or relatives. My son is autistic so I have skin in the game, as they say. We can get into the ins and outs of the assessments of need and the therapies that are not happening but listening to the HSE last week, the one message is that it is not likely to be able to offer the service that is required in the near future. The foreign recruitment drive and the localised stuff is not going to deliver. It also looks like we do not have the workforce planning done to have the throughput for even three or four years' time. That is something that has to be put on the agenda or we will be having this conversation forever. Páiric Clerkin of the Irish Primary Principals Network, IPPN, was before this committee recently. This might relate to some of the stuff Mr. Power said. Mr. Clerkin suggested a change to the admissions Act so people, particularly those with special needs kids, could apply two years beforehand. That would give schools an element of organisational time. Beyond that, if necessary, he said section 37A should be implemented. We have all heard stories from parents and we all know the situation. Things are better in primary schools. The information is there. We know there are more kids coming through and we do not have the services in second level. The thing about an education and health care plan, EHCP, is that it crosses everything. This is about schools and health but it is also cradle to grave. We all know the difficulty with adult services. I ask the witnesses to go into a bit more detail on that. I have covered the entire gambit and they have about two minutes to answer all that so I apologise.