Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)

I thank the Minister of State for his reply. The last part of the reply is very interesting. Everybody was consulted about the content of the census form bar the Members of this House. A number of people in this House have had a great deal of involvement and experience in dealing with, particularly, children with autism. To send out a survey to the members of the public asking them whether particular illnesses should be designated for special mention on a form is quite ridiculous. The only people concerned about real issues like this are the parents and organisations dealing on a daily basis with unfortunate children who have a disorder such as autistic spectrum disorder. I fail to see how any Government can develop a proper policy particularly in the area of education and health without statistics about the numbers of people affected, in this instance, by autism.

Is the Minister of State aware of ongoing difficulty for parents trying to get proper educational facilities, speech therapy and medical assistance for children with autism, be it at early diagnosis stage or in primary and secondary education and ultimately right through the educational system? I ask the Minister of State to take the matter back to Government and ask whether it would not be better off being discussed by the appropriate committee in this House that could invite the various organisations dealing with specialist illness such as autism to make submissions outlining what they want. They are the people with whom we are dealing on a daily basis. Everybody else was consulted on the content of the form. To say that this specialist group ruled it out on the basis that the form was not big enough is the best I have heard. Surely a form can be made somewhat bigger to include important questions such as the one I pose here. Will the Minister of State review this matter again? As Minister of State in the Department of the Taoiseach and Chief Whip he has responsibility for the CSO. If he gives a direction in this regard, it will be done, and I ask him to do it.

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