Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

The motion states that the Government must "immediately inform the Dáil of the measures it intends to take to ensure that all children receive a comprehensive [assessment of needs] within the timeframe set down by the Disability Act 2005". The Minister of State says the Government will support the motion and is sitting there nodding at all the criticisms people are raising. This is really cynical stuff. Is she going to inform the Dáil immediately of the measures the Government intends to take to ensure that all children receive a comprehensive assessment of needs within the timeframe set down in the 2005 Act, or will she do what the Government has done with similar motions last week, the week before and the week before that, which is to vote for them and then keep on doing the same thing? People will be watching closely in that regard.

As the motion points out, a survey conducted by AsIAm in June last year, Every Child Counts: A Report into Autistic Children's Access to Healthcare in Ireland, found that "80 per cent of parents and guardians have had to wait a year or more to receive an autism diagnosis for their child, and 79 per cent said they were not in receipt of any support from either the Early Intervention or School Age-Going Teams". Examples have been given of how parents who cannot afford it have had to borrow money to seek private treatment. People who are not in a position to do so have had to go on the desperately long waiting lists and watch their children having to wait and fall behind. Even when a child is diagnosed, multiple obstacles remain, such as a shortage of clinicians, including occupational therapists, and teachers being asked to cope with insufficient training. All of this is extraordinarily stressful for parents.

In Kilbrittain, there was a successful campaign by parents and teachers to stop the closure of an early intervention preschool. The NCSE was forced to back down by the campaign but has refused to clarify whether closure of such preschools is now part of its policy, which would amount to cost-cutting under the cloak of the access and inclusion model. Will the Minister of State clarify the position in this regard and rule out such a policy? If she is voting for this motion, she needs to act, as she will be called on to do.

See this speech in context