Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I note the Minister of State's reply that he met a group of parents from Dublin 15. I represent Dublin Fingal in north county Dublin and I am talking about parents in Swords, Skerries, Balbriggan, Lusk, Rush and surrounding areas. They are being told there is a 33-month wait for early intervention. It cannot be considered early intervention if there is a three-year wait; that is anything but early. I welcome that there will be meetings but I have no confidence that they will help the parents. The only thing that will help those parents is information about how they can access services and where those services are. I have spoken to parents who are on a single or fixed income who have to scrape to find €7,500 just to make up the shortfall that the State should provide. They are doing the Minister of State's job. It is case of make do and mend for them and they are salvaging every penny they can to supplement the care of their children. They are doing the job of the State, which is not fair. They feel their kids are being treated as second-class citizens. There is little in the Minister of State's reply that would give me cause to tell them otherwise.

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