Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

While I accept the Minister of State’s figures, the reality on the ground is that if someone was to ring the dietician today to seek an appointment, which I did the other day, one would be told that the dietician is on maternity leave - as they are entitled - and will not be back until October 2024 and to contact the disability team. There is no dietician in place.

The forum for parents met recently. I think this is what escalated their concerns because they were given figures including a 54% gap when it comes to speech and language therapists. I have spoken to parents on a one-to-one basis. One family with two children with autism, for instance, was told they were getting a service but they have had no speech and language therapist for five years for one child. In the past year, they got an appointment for a speech and language therapist for the other. That lad is being classed as having a service but he needs a lot more services. There are no case workers. No one is leading these people through the mist in which they find themselves. One of the things they were advised to do was to follow other parents on Instagram to find out how to deal with this. Parents are telling me that is where we are at and that is why they are out protesting in Tuam this morning.

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