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

The point of tonight's motion is that we want to get cross-party agreement to set up an all-party committee to be tasked with finally delivering an autism empowerment strategy. The current situation, where we have no strategy, is crazy despite such a strategy being in place in most European countries. That we must go to this length and table a Private Members' motion to get something so basic for those families in the Public Gallery and those listening at home shames this House. Like others, I have had families come to see me. The system in my constituency is broken. There are 11 units in the primary school sector. There are no suitable secondary schools. Perhaps I am not great on maths but where do these children go? The parents want to know where to send their children. Does the Minister of State have an answer because the parents are looking for answers and that is why they come to my office? They have nowhere to send their children in the secondary sector. There are 18 suitable secondary schools in Dublin. People across Dublin are asking where they should send their children. It does not add up.

We know from the last census figures that the population is growing. As we are getting better at identifying these issues in children, demand will grow and we need to put resources in place. When I ask questions, the only thing I hear is that 100 workers will be deployed in this area. When I asked about the unit that is supposed to be established in the CHO 7 area, I was told that there is no team manager, the post of staff grade educational psychologist has been vacant from 14 December, there is no staff grade psychologist or occupational therapist and many other key positions are vacant. Clearly, children are going into the system but it is going nowhere. A reply from the HSE informed me that the waiting time for the school-age team, SAT, is 42 months and growing monthly because the team does not have the capacity to safely take on additional cases and that there has been no movement on the waiting list in the past 12 months due to the volume of children who are transitioning from early intervention services, the capacity case load of team members, delays in filling vacancies and maternity leave positions not being filled. The system is broken. What do I do? I write to the Minister of State, the Ministers for Children and Youth Affairs and Education and Skills, and the Minister of State with responsibility for disability issues, and they all tell me it is not their area but somebody else's area but at the end of the day, where do these families go? I am encouraging families to take court cases to get their rights. Something is wrong with the system and nobody will tell us where those families are supposed to go, so it is wrong.

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