Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to this debate. I welcome my constituency colleague to the Lower House. I am not sure whether his party colleague would do so, but I certainly do. I compliment him on the good work he has done in the area of autism. I know he is personally involved and he brought that personal commitment to this report. I congratulate him and his colleagues on publishing a very worthy report in the context of the rising rates of autism globally. It really is timely that we debate the issue here this evening.

As we know, autism is very different for everybody and the needs are unique to each individual person. The point has been made a couple of times this evening that, now that we have a report and now that the committee has done the good work and published the recommendations, it is important that Government implements those recommendations. I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, to the Chamber this evening. She is very committed to her role and to her work as Minister of State in this area. However, the matter is not unique to the Minister of State. It will require commitment and dedication across a number of Departments.

I will use this opportunity to highlight some of the challenges and issues I have seen in my engagement at the constituency level. There are delays in accessing assessments of need. That is particularly problematic, as I have mentioned before, in respect of the Springfield Centre in Mullingar where long waiting lists result in young children's access to necessary supports being delayed at a crucial time in their formative years.

There is also poor access to services. I have privately raised the issue of respite services with the Minister of State before. There can be a need for respite services depending on where one is on the spectrum. I previously raised with the Minister of State the respite services being run by the Muiríosa Foundation. The foundation had ceased providing weekend cover. I appreciate the Minister of State's intervention. The foundation wrote to parents a number of weeks ago saying:

We are pleased to inform you that Mullingar Respite has received the funding to operate two weekends a month from March 2024. These weekends [will] be allocated equally between adults and children.

In order to provide an equitable share of weekends for all that use our respite, we are unfortunately not in a position to accept requests for specific weekends.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank you for all your support and thank you for your cooperation in this matter.

The Minister of State will know people who need that service. We have invested in our infrastructure. The infrastructure and the building are there. It is not good enough that it is not operational 24-7. It is not good enough that families who need this intervention at a critical time cannot even book in for a holiday, a wedding or some other life event they need support for. Currently, they are not able to do that in that service in Mullingar. The Minister of State intervened a number of weeks ago. I need her to intervene again. Extra money was provided for respite services in budget 2024. I would like to see that service being rolled out every single weekend all year round.

Another issue that has been mentioned is the lack of inclusivity in education. Again, this is not the responsibility of the Minister of State but I am going to take the opportunity to raise the matter this evening. Taghmon National School, which is a number of kilometres outside of Mullingar, was requested by the Department of Education to put in for not one, but two additional classrooms for special educational needs. Having put in that request and submitted all of the documentation and paperwork, it was then told it only needed one, despite the fact that there is a waiting list to get in. The school originally applied for one but was requested to apply for two. The Department is now telling the school it is looking for too much. It is bizarre stuff. This is a school with a waiting list for children with autism to get into the special education class and it is being frustrated, running the risk that children who need the service will not have it in September. I ask the Minister of State to utilise her good offices to raise that point.

One of the points that has been made related to the lack of employment supports. Earlier today, I visited the National Learning Network in Mullingar. It is a fabulous service that is doing really good work. More than 90 people utilise it for a variety of reasons. Not all have autism, although some do. I was struck by the fact that there is now a waiting list to get into that service because of the good work it is doing with children and young adults experiencing different challenges. It was a pleasure to visit that service today. As I am speaking in the House this evening, I will take the opportunity to compliment the good work it is doing. Those in the service requested to come visit the Dáil. We will honour that request. When we do, perhaps the Minister of State will come out to meet them.

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