Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

We have to fight for everything. That is the phrase I hear from every parent of a child with autism.

It is the case for all the families of children with disabilities, but especially so for those families who have children with autism. They must fight for every inch, every service and every appointment. They must fight for everything. To be honest, I have not seen that change in all the years I have been in politics, whether on the council or in the Dáil. The Government must do so much more to ensure that children with autism can live their lives fully and equally.

This is particularly the case when it comes to access to education. One of the things supposed to underpin the philosophy of the Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Act 2004, and everything that followed, although that was not implemented in full or anything like it, was a view of education as not only being concerned with the scholastic and the academic. Education is supposed to be about full development and the widest sense of the word "education". Too often, that aspect seems to be lost and disregarded by the Department of Education. Families must fight tooth and nail for their fundamental rights and often they must go to court to realise them. Many people have referred to something as simple as an assessment of need in this regard and many families have been waiting so long that they feel they have no other option but to engage a lawyer and start a legal process. That often has the desired effect, but it should not have to come to that.

We remember, and the Minister of State will remember, the shocking discovery just six months ago that the State was keeping dossiers on families forced to pursue legal avenues. Efforts were made behind the backs of those families to gather information and these parents were treated as objects of suspicion. I felt that was disgraceful. When I spoke to the families involved, however, they said they were sickened and disgusted but not surprised. In and of itself, that is a damning indictment. Those families are fatigued and broken from fighting a continual uphill battle with a flawed system. They must fight the Department of Education for basic educational rights. Cultural change is required in this regard and this adversarial approach must go. The organisation AsIAm has put this well. There must be a shift in attitude to ensure that the Department and its officials "become collaborators, not gatekeepers" in respect of the provision of the supports required by families who have children with autism. The waiting times for assessments of need are unbelievable. I said this previously. Families in Cork are waiting years, even though such assessments are meant to happen within six months.

The Minister of State has shown leadership in this area before. The progressing disability services model, and the elements that saw special schools lose therapies, was paused and the Minister of State was a part of that. My sense from my communications with schools, however, is that this process is resuming and schools are beginning either to lose therapies and services or are being threatened with that happening. Therefore, I urge the Minister of State to pursue this issue. I am making her aware of it and I would like her to pursue it.

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