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

The Tánaiste speaks about Ireland having full employment, and about a surplus and a budget, but I ask that he spares a thought for a father with whom we have been dealing over the last nine or ten months. Unfortunately, some children with autism, including his child, are non-verbal. His two other siblings are also living in the house. The child is under the adult age at 17 but is getting stronger. He takes food out of the fridge and pegs it on the floor. Some 20 T-shirts a week must be bought when a tantrum is thrown. He wrecks the mirrors of the car and he is incontinent. The father is trying to keep the family together.

We have got on to the HSE. Ironically, we are told that money is not a problem in these cases. The problem is that for children under adult age, there does not appear to be places for them or full-time residential care.

We have a lot of good stories to tell in this country but unfortunately those children are left behind. In this case, they were promised respite, and yes one night a week came. They were promised carers for five days a week but they never showed up. Given the way it treats young children with disabilities, is this the Ireland the Tánaiste envisages and is this the way the Government should be catering for them? Why over a number of years have we decimated residential care for those children under the adult age? Ironically, they have been told that if they can work it for the next ten months until the child reaches 18, they will be guaranteed a place.

I presume every other Deputy here, as I do, has a list as long as his or her arm of the fathers and mothers who, down through the years, have tried to help these adults for as long as they are able. However, when they look for residential care, it is not there. We have failed youngsters under the age of 18 and we do not have the places for the adults over 18 years of age. What is the Government going to do?

I will give the Tánaiste an example. I spoke to the Brothers of Charity the other day. If the Brothers of Charity decided to buy a house in the morning, there is no budget there. One must go through the council and a process. I was told it would take two years. That is what it would take for them to get a house because the council would own it. In many cases, where there were difficult cases, two or three children would be brought into a house and carers would be brought in. There is, however, no capital budget for the likes of the Brothers of Charity or organisations like that to buy a house quickly. It is a process one must go through and it is not working.

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