Ruairí Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

If we are serious about tackling child poverty, first of all, we have to deal with those necessary services that are not available to our citizens. We are talking about those in the most peripheral of places and the most disadvantaged. I have spoken to the Taoiseach before to say that what we really need are these early interventions. Those includes family support interventions and also wider community interventions. We need to put a plan in place for that. On the day that AsIAm is here, when we are talking about making Leinster House autism-friendly, which is all to be welcomed, we have to deal with the fact we all know the issues that exist with child disability services, particularly for autism. There are not enough occupational therapists, speech and language therapists or psychologists. This needs to be addressed. The unfortunate thing is that those who do not have the resources and do not have the money fall further behind. This is just not good enough.

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