Duncan Smith (Dublin Fingal, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I am very disappointed in the Minister's script. While he did not read these words out, his script states: "It is for these reasons that the Government will not oppose, but can neither support at this time, the Autism Bill 2022." We did not pitch this Bill to be two or three steps away from the Government position so that it could not support it. We spent an awful lot of time working with parents, families and adults with autism to write a Bill that is deliverable. We feel we have done that. We came to the Chamber this morning on the understanding and with the belief that the Government was not opposing the Bill and that we would see it progress to Committee Stage for discussion. If the Government wants to make changes, it could table amendments and we could discuss them. As Deputy Bacik said in her contribution, we will work on this constructively. Unfortunately, this will instead go where all Opposition motions and Bills have gone - into the ether. It will stay on the Order Paper but go no further. Quite frankly, that is a tragedy for the thousands of people with autism all over this country, their families and their support networks.

I have a friend whom I first met at a party a number of years ago. He has a child for whom he was just beginning to seek interventions at that time. He said something to me that has stuck in my mind. I had just started as a county councillor at the time. He said that it was like he had just been thrown into a jungle with no map. That was how he felt. The fight began then. It is a fight for services, including speech and language therapy, early intervention and audiology; the list goes on. I am not even going to read out the waiting list numbers. We know them. They are astronomical. The question that is always asked of parents, usually by public health officials, is whether they would go private. That is always asked but that is a question that should never be asked. It is an awful question to ask because many people cannot afford to go private. They should not have to go private. Even if they can afford it and do go down that road, the waiting lists are out the door even in the private sector and the services are not there. It is a complete catastrophe.

Deputy Ó Ríordáin spoke about one of the other fights, which is the fight for education. One family had to go through 25 schools to get a school place. I ask everyone in this Chamber to think about their community and where they live and count 25 schools away from there. How far does that take you? For me, in Swords, it would take me up to Drogheda, where many families in my area send their children to school, down to Donaghmede, in Deputy Ó Ríordáin's constituency, or into Dublin city centre. That is the reality. This is again a total dereliction of public duty.

There is then the fight for the right to work post education. A couple of Fridays ago, I received a call from a parent whose son in his mid-20s. He has got jobs but been let go very quickly because of a lack of compassion and understanding of his neurodiversity. That is why, in the Bill, we have sought to amend legislation and introduce definitions to tackle the discrimination taking place in workplaces. We are really disappointed that the Bill will go the way of our motion last year. We feel that it is there to be debated and to be amended on Committee Stage, to become law and to improve the lives, opportunities and roadmaps of a great many people who are feeling excluded from this republic and from their communities. That is something none of us can or should stand over.

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