Mr. Ronan Whitmarsh:

I am Linda’s husband and the co-chair of Cavan Monaghan Parents Committee. I will be very quick as I know everyone wants to speak and we are the first ones out of the gate.

We see four main pillars that, if worked on, would represent massive strides towards getting services. The disability services for the country, of which autism is a massive part, are completely broken. Therapies and services are completely broken. I do not think anyone today would actually say that when their child is getting services that the services are bad. There is nothing wrong with the therapists as far as we can see. The people doing the jobs are great when you get them. There has to be responsibility on the HSE to provide these services. The Disability Act 2005 falls off a cliff in respect of the wording after the assessment of need. There is nothing in the Act to state that the provision of services should be guaranteed to anybody in need of these services after they have gone through the assessment of need. Any lawyer could tell you that there is no legal responsibility for the HSE to ever provide any services. If you go to your solicitor and try to sue the HSE to get services, you will be told there is no case there because there is nothing in the Act to provide that.

Second, the Government needs to ratify the UNCRPD optional protocol to safeguard the future.

Our committee raised the third pillar with the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, approximately six months ago. A trade mission needs to be sent abroad to try to recruit therapists for the Republic. We do not have the necessary number of therapists. When a parent asks the Minister of State or the HSE's head of disability services why there are no therapists and why his or her child cannot be seen, the parent is told by both sides – they have said this in the Seanad Chamber as well, so it is on the record – that there simply is not the staff. Therapists cannot be recruited. The Minister of State and head of disability services do not say the issue is down to money, but to being unable to get the staff. A nursing trade mission was put together in the 1990s, after which the first wave of Filipino nurses were brought to Ireland. They were brought to Ireland in much greater numbers than the number of speech and language therapists, occupational therapists and physiotherapists we are seeking.

Under the final pillar, something must be done at governmental level to provide more places at university so that more therapists are educated. There are not enough places. I believe there are more than 700 vacancies in CDNTS across the country. CDNTs cannot fill these positions. We need to push out more students. There is demand. I do not mean to keep referring to nursing, but the same thing happened in the 1990s when the number of people studying nursing at third level was expanded because there were not enough nurses.

These four pillars would help services. Everyone here is struggling. Everyone parent sitting in front of members today is drowning. Most are too exhausted to campaign and graft. Do members know how difficult it is to get in the media? It is incredibly difficult. There are some very helpful politicians. For example, Deputy Tully has been fantastic to us in Cavan-Monaghan. We need people to advocate for us. The Government has to do something. If this round table meeting can make recommendations, these four points have to be considered.

I am sorry for taking too much time.