Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I wish to draw the attention of the Minister of State to a very severe, extreme and unusual case of a family in crisis. The case centres on a young man with severe autism. His mother has cancer and two of his siblings have special needs. The difficulty is that there is a mandatory court order relating to this case which expires on 28 June. This is an emergency situation. The family is clearly in crisis and is seeking support. I am hoping the Minister of State has something in her file to indicate that they will get the support they need. I want reassurances that a plan will be put in place for this young man. He weighs 18 stone and is 6 ft. 3 in tall. He has enormous difficulties. In other circumstances, he would probably be in a residential setting but his family does not want that. They want to keep him at home but considerable resources are needed to do this. The circumstances are unusual and we must give as much support to the family as possible. The young lad was allowed to stay in school for an extra year and the family have asked if the setting could be the same.

Aside from this specific case, we need to think in terms of a transitional period for children like this, particularly those with severe autism. We need to develop transitional services so that the move from school is not so abrupt for these children. I hope that this case might trigger changes within the Department in this context.

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