Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

The programme for Government promises improved intervention for children with special needs but the reality is that we have a national crisis, with hundreds of children on waiting lists for years not getting the early intervention that everybody acknowledges is needed. The State is failing families. There are particular black spots. Tallaght and many other areas of Dublin are among those. I will give one example to make this real for the Taoiseach. A young mother came to me a few weeks ago about her son who was diagnosed with autism when he was younger. He was in mainstream school until he was 11. Following that, his condition deteriorated. He became reclusive and has been out of school since May 2017. In the past few months, his condition deteriorated further. He is refusing to eat most food and is rapidly losing weight. His family is extremely concerned that he will starve himself to death. He was under the care of the Lucena Clinic. He was discharged in April. The clinic said it would refer him to the disability services. However, the disability services said they did not the referral. Effectively, this young man is left in limbo and there is no indication of him getting the therapy he desperately requires.

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