Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I will furnish the Tánaiste with the details of that blood test and the ten-month wait.

Regarding services for speech and language and psychology, there is a ferocious deficit at the moment. Perhaps the Tánaiste did not pick up my point. If the HSE is not able to provide a service in the area and the parents are willing to drive somewhere they can get it, I ask that those parents be facilitated. Unfortunately, I know one autistic child near me who has regressed over the past six to eight months. That should not be. That child has regressed due to a lack of services. While I acknowledge there can be problems recruiting people and with retention, at the end of the day, we must invest in the future of those children and give them the services because there is a small window of opportunity to help them as best we can. I ask if the HSE is not able to do what it is supposed to and those parents are willing to source the service somewhere else, that they be paid.

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