Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I am sharing time with Deputy Barry. I welcome everybody to the Gallery. I always think it sends a powerful message into the House on what democracy means. We can sit here chatting all day in a vacuum but to have people from the outside with real lived experience coming in sends a powerful message and I hope the Minister of State also recognises that. People Before Profit welcomes this Bill and we will support it as a step in the right direction.

Supports for those with autism are shockingly poor. We need a strategy. While I am always hesitant when it comes to announcing more strategies, documents and reviews when what we actually need is action and investment, this Bill would be an important step forward. For too long, the needs of autistic people and their families have been ignored. They have been seen and not heard but, more and more, they are speaking up through groups such as AsIAm and the Irish Society for Autism, whose members are in the Gallery.

The report from the Ombudsman for Children makes for stark reading. It highlights how the Department of Education is utterly failing children with special needs. AsIAm and others are demanding investment in education, more SNAs and a reduction in class sizes. Ireland, as we know, has some of the largest class sizes in the EU. That disadvantages all our young people but especially those with special educational needs. These groups have been fighting for years to have more SNAs, therapists, case workers and front-line workers hired. This would be a win-win for everybody as it would create decent jobs, cut waiting times and improve our education and public services. People Before Profit's alternative budget showed how it could be easily done by taxing the super-rich. It is a political choice that the Government makes to prioritise tax dodgers rather than children.

We know of at least 267 children with autism who have no school place yet for September. That is 267 families anxiously contacting schools because they are terrified their child will be left out. All the Minister of State, Deputy Madigan, could do was try to dodge responsibility and blame the schools. The buck stops with the Minister of State. Her response to the crisis has been shocking. She has lashed out at the schools for her and her Department's utter failure. Why is it only now, in June, that the Government is finally talking about this? Surely it knew well in advance how many children with autism would need school places? Where these children live and how many places there are available in the areas in question is not unknowable. It is a failure of the Minister of State and the Department. I have an email from a principal of a DEIS school in Dublin 8 who states:

I'm not sure she [the Minister of State] grasps the choices principals have to make everyday to allocate scarce and finite resources. I have to continually prioritise children with complex needs ... [and we are not equipped to do so]. This means that children with mild to moderate needs who ... are equally worthy ...[to be catered for], are falling further and further behind. It's actually heart breaking

We should have planned years in advance, as I said, to expand the number of special education classes, hire the extra special needs teachers and assistants and have more capacity. Deputy Gino Kenny tabled an interesting parliamentary question in which he asked about the graduate diploma in education on the autism spectrum in Dublin City University for the next academic year. It is startling that 80 teachers applied to take that diploma course and the university could only provide 18 places. Of course, the reply to the parliamentary question did not answer the question but answered everything but the question asked. It is totally unsatisfactory. Again, as with all public services here, it seems the Government prefers to fly by the seat of its pants and leave everything until the last minute. The result is huge anxiety and pressure on families, teachers and principals. Most particularly, it leaves the children behind. The Government can plan when it comes to looking after data centres and we will see later today that it is about to spend €500,000 to increase electricity capacity to facilitate these centres.

On top of this scandalous shortage of school places we have the massive backlog of people waiting on the list to get a diagnosis in the first place. How can the Minister of State justify a situation where parents are left waiting up to three years to get the necessary appointments so their children can have a diagnosis. Those are three key developmental years in their lives that they are forced to go through alone without having the extra supports to which they are entitled in school and in their lives. Is the Government not ashamed of that?

AsIAm and other advocacy groups, including those with us today, have been pushing for years for increased investment to cut these waiting times. People Before Profit completely supports them but this Government has failed to deliver. The result is many families who can barely afford it are forced to go through private services, which further deepens the inequalities in our society. This can no longer be accepted. We need to invest now to bring the waiting times down to months rather than years in order that children with autism get the supports they and their families need when they need them.

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