Mark Ward (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Labour Party for allowing me the opportunity to speak on the challenges people with autism face. I did not get time to speak on this until this morning. I did my research this morning and could easily speak the same words I spoke this time last year because not much has changed.

I commend the parents and campaign groups on all the work they do and welcome the groups to the Gallery. I want to mention a group in my area, the Clondalkin autism parents support network. Groups and parents should not have to fight to meet their children’s basic needs. They should not have to fight for appropriate school places for their children in their own communities. They should not have to fight to make sure their children are part of the school community and not apart from it. They should not have to fight so their children can reach their full potential, but fight they must.

I welcome a positive initiative by the Houses of the Oireachtas in relation to Leinster House becoming an autism-friendly space by the end of this year. Deputy Buckley and I took part in the training recently.

I urge all Members to take part in it. It was really worthwhile.

I will go back to the subject I started on. The Government has failed children with disabilities in accessing timely services. In fact, despite warnings from the Opposition, and not just from Sinn Féin but right across the board, the Government broke the law by bypassing the comprehensive assessments of needs and replacing them with a preliminary team assessment. This is contrary to the Disability Act.

Parents are sick and tired of the response, that I send to them after I get it from the HSE, blaming the delay in their child getting a vital assessment of need on the backlog. This backlog has been created by the fact that the HSE and the Government broke the law. I and others stood in this Chamber last year and the year before when the HSE was introducing this preliminary team assessment to replace the comprehensive assessment of need and we warned that we would be in breach of the Disability Act. The Government ignored this and, to date, nobody has been held to account. We must get away from the scenario where children are being moved from list to list, without getting the necessary intervention at the end of it.

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