Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Regional Group for using its time to progress this vital Bill. Like everybody else, I am contacted every week by families who are deeply concerned about a child or family member with autism spectrum disorder who cannot access the therapeutic interventions and educational supports to which he or she is entitled. This is a key point. Young people are entitled to these services. Early interventions will have an incredible developmental impact which improves the quality of life for young people and their families. The State and Government are aware of these needs. The only thing missing is the will to provide these vital services.

Over the past two weeks alone, I have met several families who are at their wits' end. They are angry, concerned and exhausted.

One child whose additional needs were first identified in August 2018 has been moved around between services and placed on different waiting lists. The child also had their file lost but was fortunate enough to belong to a family that was able to get private assessments. Since the assessment of needs determined that the child would require psychology, occupational therapy, speech and language therapy and the support of a physiotherapist support over 14 months ago, they have received one hour of occupational therapy and an hour and a half of speech and language therapy. The child was forced to get a private assessment for autism spectrum disorder, ASD, and, thanks to the incredible work of the family and local schools, they have started in the early intervention class. However, if the family had to rely on the public system, the young person concerned would still be waiting for diagnosis and as a result would be inappropriately placed in mainstream classes and would not be getting vital therapies. We all know the importance of early intervention. This, as one would guess, has come at considerable emotional and financial cost to the family, with one of the parents changing jobs and taking reduced hours to support their child, not to mention the knock-on effects on the rest of their lives. A failure by the State to provide basic services forces all responsibility and obligations on to already overstretched families. In this case, the family are doing everything they can to get private support, but many other children do not have that option.

Another child is in an early intervention class but the parent is deeply worried about the lack of places in the junior and senior ASD classes in the school. Compounding this is an overall lack of spaces in schools across Cork South-West. There are more children in the early intervention class then there are places available in the ASD classes. Parents are worried sick about what they will do. Schools are doing the best they can. What can we say to these families? Children need special classes but there are not enough spaces.

I will give one example of such a situation. There is almost an equivalent of a small room and a big room with ASD classes in some schools. There are four classes in one room and four in the next. Two places are becoming available in the big room in one school because two students are moving on but there are four children in the small room who need a space. The parent concerned has contacted every other school in the jurisdiction. The Minister of State knows how uprooting it is for a child to move schools. The parent has contacted schools more than an hour and a half away and every single one has a waiting list. This is a clear failure.

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