Jimmy Deenihan (Kerry North, Fine Gael)

I thank Deputy Brian Hayes for tabling this important motion. It is estimated that there are more than 250 families affected by autism in County Kerry. Some of the parents affected are in the Gallery. The 400-mile round trip from Kerry they will make shows their commitment to and concern for their children.

There is a national need for planned services, including early diagnosis, suitable interventions and a full range of family supports. While the services available to families are improving, the professionals working in the field are under-resourced and many posts are not filled. Many services are fragmented, with parents witnessing little evidence of the development of a coherent plan involving the Department of Education and Science, the HSE and other service providers. The net result is that many professionals work in isolation and many families lose valuable time in addressing the developmental needs of their children.

For a good prognosis, children with autism need early intervention to modify their autistic characteristics. Unfortunately, they cannot receive any services until they have received diagnoses identifying their needs. In Kerry, children may experience delays of up to four years in getting a diagnosis of autism. To help overcome this issue, Kerry Autism Action has recently helped to fund assessments in the Solas Centre where children can receive a complete autism diagnostic service. An assessment is taken with input from a psychologist, occupational therapist, child psychiatrist and speech and language therapist.

While the Department has allocated extra resources to special autism classes in schools like the Nano Nagle special school, Listowel, Scoil Eoin, Balloonagh, Tralee, and Killahan Primary School, children requiring applied behavioural analysis education are neglected in Kerry. Since there are ABA schools in other parts of the country, including the Minister's constituency, Kerry Autism Action applied to the Department to fund such a school in Kerry. Despite repeated requests, the Department failed to respond to the application. As a result and with strong local support, the parents were forced to set up and fund their own school at Lixnaw. Since opening for a limited number of children, parents have witnessed dramatic improvements in some of their children's development, which I have seen personally.

I will make an appeal to the Minister in the Chamber and in person. If she does nothing else for parents in Kerry, she should fund the school. The parents needed to do it themselves, fund-raise for it and pay for it out of their own resources. Surely, she could add this school to the current 12 and replicate them elsewhere.

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