Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I support my colleague regarding the Galway Autism Partnership. It is a community charity. In many cases voluntary bodies that receive State money provide very good value for that money.

They often collect money also. Given the whole ethos of volunteerism behind the partnership, it gives a very good service. When considering this particular organisation, we must understand the nature of autism and the challenges faced by parents. These are 24 hour every day challenges. The Galway Autism Partnership, GAP, facilitates connection and supports with the parents. We are talking about 3,545 hours of special interest clubs, camps and community events. While these supports are important for children who do not have autism, they are hugely important in the case of autistic children. The partnership also provides parent and carer support groups in several locations in Galway city and county, and it provides many other services, way too many to mention in the few minutes we have here.

A parent wrote to me:

I am a parent, carer and usually therapist for my children because my children do not get meaningful health services. The frontline staff does their best in the HSE, but they are under-resourced, doing an impossible job with a consistent lack of resources.

The reality is that the supports needed by parents and their autistic children are not being given. GAP is fulfilling a very important role in providing those services, but it needs money. As my colleague said, on the one hand they are refused section 39 finding and on the other hand, we know that €150 million of Dormant Accounts Fund money is lying dormant and unused by the Government, part of which was to be given to people with a disability. This money, which arose out of the DIRT inquiry, was to be given for the purpose of helping community groups not for funding of State services. I ask that the Minister of State would make representation to his colleagues to do something urgent about this case because if we do not do it now, we might find that after Christmas we have no service in Galway.

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