Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Dublin Bay North, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank all my party colleagues and especially Deputy Duncan Smith, who drafted the motion. The point of the Labour Party is to bring forward to this House the cases of those who are most disadvantaged in our society. We bring forward the cases of workers, people in disadvantaged areas, people who suffer injustice and people who are treated as second-class citizens.

This is the third time during this Oireachtas term, as my party colleague Deputy Smith said, that we have brought forward, in our Private Members' time, a motion on autism. That is because in our interactions with families who have autistic people within them, they know they are being treated as second-class citizens and they are exhausted. I feel as though I have made this contribution far too often, but it is heartbreaking to look at your child and, within your heart, to know they are being treated as a second-class citizen. These parents are completely exhausted from dealing with this diagnosis, learning about it and understanding all that is being said about it, yet when they get on the phone or send an email, as my party leader, Deputy Bacik, quite rightly said, there is institutional hostility.

Imagine that feeling, and then imagine the feeling parents should have, which is that in this country that proclaims itself as a Republic, the State would envelop them with a feeling of care and compassion and a sense that their child is not a second-class citizen but a valued member of this Republic. Why, then, do they have to go to war to get an assessment, a basic intervention or even a school place? Can we imagine how humiliating it must be to have to ring your local Deputy to try to access a school place for your child because your child is autistic? That child is a second-class citizen.

It should not take, as Deputy Sherlock said, a family to rip open their private matters in the public sphere to get the most basic provisions any other European country could take for granted. It should not take Cara Darmody, a child in primary school, to sit a leaving certificate maths exam just to focus attention on how the State has failed her two brothers. It should not take Alison Field to turn to politics and run in a local election next year to focus attention on how the State has failed her son James. We should not have a debate about autism and the lack of services for people with autism in the absence of the Minister of State with responsibility for special education, because that is a huge part of this debate and she is not here.

Again, there are issues with SNA allocations, while the disrespect shown to those people who work most intently with people with disabilities in our education system, by their not knowing whether they will have a job next September as late as May, and last year as late as June, is another part of the problem.

I do not know if this is a governmental ploy to not oppose these motions or if it is a statement of compassion, care and intent from the Government's side of things. I hope it is. However, this is the third time we have done this. From the Labour Party of view, the Ministers know we get these slots every six weeks. We get two hours every six weeks to raise something we feel is of passionate importance. If we come across a group in Irish society who we know are facing hostility or are being treated as second class citizens, as a party, we have to and are morally obliged to do something about it. It should not take Cara or Alison to do what they are doing. It should not take families to open up their private affairs to try to get some small changes. Let us please not have this debate again this time next year. Let us see real change.

See this speech in context