Paul Connaughton (Galway East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am glad of the opportunity to speak on this Bill. I will keep my comments brief as a number of Deputies wish to contribute.

I commend Deputy McCarthy on bringing this Bill before the House. Many of the relevant issues have already been discussed and I agree with what Deputy Harris has said. I wish to make one key point, however. Some parents have approached me who are concerned about their children aged two, three or four years of age, although those children have not been diagnosed with autism or Asperger's syndrome. Much of today's debate has been about where children are found on the spectrum but I am referring to the stage before that occurs. Parents are seeking services for a way to diagnose their children. In many cases these parents are spending a lot of money travelling throughout the country to meet with various doctors and organisations to find out what can be done for their children. Even at this point, however, they do not know whether their children may have such a condition.

I commend the Bill, which is welcome because we do need a national strategy. However far this legislation goes, it is important to establish a diagnostic system for children from an early age because parents do not know where they will send their children to school. Will it be a primary school or one for special education? They want to ensure that their children are not stigmatised from the day they enter junior infants' class.

We must do whatever we can to help those families early on, including raising concerns with the HSE or the relevant Department. If they have concerns about their sons or daughters, they must receive the required support. We have been discussing the situation further down the education route, which is extremely important, because we should all be concerned about the supports they receive when they enter the school programme. In addition, however, that early emphasis needs to be properly understood so that parents can be given the required diagnosis.

There are many different elements in the autism spectrum and young people can fall between the cracks. Coming from a youth-work background myself, I know that if this matter is not tackled when children are aged between four and seven, it will be too late to do so further on. Many other social issues will have arisen in the interim that will disqualify these young people from the services they need.

When such children turn 18 years of age we seem to treat them as different people. Someone with an intellectual disability has that disability whether they are aged 17 or 18. Deputy Harris has done much work on this matter concerning school-leavers. When we get to that point in the year, we have this conversation about where school-leavers will go next. I find that remarkable, considering that we have known for years that these young people will need such services and facilities.

Through the strategy for autism, we must set out a plan from a very early age to show how the State will take care of such boys and girls. We should not arrive at a situation where at the age of 18, for some reason, we consider that they are different people with different needs. They have required such services for a long time and we have known of those concerns, as have the health services. It is important therefore that we lay out a plan to provide them.

See this speech in context