Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Like others, I welcome everyone in the Gallery. It reinforces that we are not talking in a vacuum. We are actually listening and, I hope, reflecting the views of people who are affected by this issue. It is one that is understood by most people and all contributors across the House. I also commend my colleague, Deputy Ó Ríordáin, not alone on his work in preparing and introducing this important legislation but also on his ongoing campaign to highlight and, much more importantly, to address the many issues faced by people with autism and their families.

None of us are surprised by the passion of the Minister of State; she gets it. The problem is the rest of the Government does not seem to get it. We are trying to assist and provide her with the legislative means. I know, having worked in various Departments, the reality is everybody is in his or her own silo. Unless people are required by law to act and report, these things do not happen. That is why I hope the Minister of State will embrace this legislation as a legal underpinning of the clear ideas and understandings she has articulated in the Chamber. This is not a stand-alone Bill for debate. It is just another step in seeking to support the growing number of children and adults facing real and practical difficulties in the myriad of ways Members have outlined and we have heard directly.

No Member of this House has not had the most difficult and heart-wrenching conversations with mothers, fathers and families of children with autism seeking basic supports for their families - from the start, a basic assessment. The notion they have to wait three years for a formal assessment of need before being able to access any service is just not acceptable. It is just shocking. That is to get on the first step of the ladder. I know how difficult it is to get professional supports, as the Minister of State has instanced in her commentary, and to reinforce the number of people needed, including the professionals in these support teams, because they are being recruited in the private sector. The problem is we are all talking to the ones who remain and they are under so much extra pressure trying to cover for absences that they are now on the verge of leaving too. It is a crisis that is unfolding and we need a solution. It is no use saying we can solve these problems by having new places and new training. We need a way of holding people by paying them decently and reflecting what the private sector pays if we want them to stay in the public sector.

The response of the State to date can be described as inadequate, and that is a very mild way to say it. What is required is clearly a national strategy that is underpinned by law, that has all the multifaceted approaches to which everybody here has referred and that has a significant education component, because we need to plan from birth to graduation. People have to argue for their rights at every stage as if they will disappear after primary school or after secondary school. I commend the work of the Minister, Deputy Harris, on beginning a process, but we need the type of joined-up thinking for which everybody has argued but put on a statutory basis in order that the Minister of State is not the only one who gets it but that all her colleagues are required to get it and to report it.

I do not have time to go into the Ombudsman for Children's report but it makes for very salutary reading.

We all know the individual requirements because the families know them and they tell us what they are. This is a human rights issue, not an education issue, a health issue or an employment issue. Eleanor Roosevelt asked where, after all, universal human rights stand. She said they stand in small places close to home and that, unless those rights have meaning in those small places close to home, there are no international human rights at all.

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