Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Déanfaidh mé mo dhícheall mo chuid ama a úsáid.

I wish the Minister of State well in her post and look forward to engaging with her. The whole situation is very sad. There is nothing more frustrating than young children and adult children waiting for services who cannot get them. Money is being pumped into the system. There is not doubt about that, but there is an awful lot of what I call blackguarding going on. It is going on in south Tipperary CAMHS at an appalling rate. I have had some information from a whistleblower on the staff in Clonmel. It is shameful what is happening. The most vulnerable children are waiting for basic services and blackguarding is going on in the system with people not dealing with the public list and forcing people to go private and getting paid double. They are paid from the public list even though they do not see the children. We await investigations into that. Something has to happen.

I raised this with the Tánaiste last week and in fairness to him he admitted, which is great, that the disability services have failed since 2015. He admitted that and we had another short debate on it today. Last weekend in Clonmel - it is the first time it ever happened - on Saturday more than 600 people marched through the streets, begging for improved services for people with disabilities.

We heard testimony from parents whose children still have no school place for this September and now others will have to travel from Tipperary to Mayo - that is some distance - to get a psychological appointment. That is an awful distance. It is four hours on a good road, and with a child with special issues it might be a day's travel because there would have to be stops and breaks. That is cruel and it should not have to happen.

We heard from parents of children who have no place from September and there is the worry and angst they will have now up to the holidays in June and then afterwards about whether they will have a place. We have heard stories of how efforts to recruit for CDNT teams have been unsuccessful. The lack of accommodation in Clonmel is having an impact on recruitment efforts because if someone takes up a job, they cannot get a place to live.

We are proud of the special schools in south Tipperary. Scoil Aonghusa and Scoil Chormaic are bursting at the seams. Both scoileanna, tá siad i gCaiseal na Mumhan i Tiobraid Árann. They are renowned for the work they do and the amount they do. They are bursting at the seams with huge waiting lists and are under awful pressure. In actual fact, the committee in Clonmel now believes we need a new special school in Clonmel. Clonmel used to be the biggest and is now the second biggest inland town in Ireland. It has a huge hinterland. We need a special school nua in Tiobraid Árann theas. We just need it. The need is there for it.

I know I will be seized on or rained on when I say this here but my late brother was a paediatrician of some renown. When he came home from Africa and talked to me and others, it was the first time I heard the words "autism", "dyspraxia" or "dyslexia". It genuinely was. It was in the very late nineties. He was a champion of children from all over the country and abroad. He was right here battling all the time for those with special needs. He was at that time questioning what is causing all of this. We can never correct anything no matter what it is, or learn from our mistakes if we do not look at the mistakes, how we made them and what happened. There must be a need for understanding the explosion of autism. I will not make little of any one boy or girl who has it. It is so tough and early diagnosis is so important but we must examine why. The last time I raised this here I was berated by a certain Mr. Harris, not the politician, but the other guy from AsIAm. I think Adam is his name. We have to be honest. My late brother put the seeds and thoughts in my head at that time, God rest him. Fuair sé bás go luath. He was very concerned something was causing it, because when I was going to school and the Ceann Comhairle and Deputy Durkan and certainly some others here were, we did not see these issues. There were some issues but nothing like the amount there are now.

I salute every bunscoil and every national school that has autism rooms and services but I wonder do we have to change the model. I was all for that model and I think it is a great one but I think we will have to change it now to have special schools. We have three schools now waiting for a second room. Scoil Mhuire, my own national school in my own village, is waiting and waiting for a second room. There was a small bit of movement recently in the Department but it has been too slow to be waiting for a school building or an extra unit. It is great the board of management, the múinteoirí and the parents council and everybody wants it and they have experience of one already. Trasna an bóthar, 20 míle go dtí An Chúirt Dóite, Burncourt National School again is held up. It has gone so far in stages and is again held up. Then we have the situation in the special schools in Cashel. They are waiting for extra space and everything else, but those two particular schools are in alignment and very hopeful and the teaching staff want to move them ahead.

There are a number of other schools. Tipperary town, Baile Thiobraid Árann, was made famous by the song "It's a Long Way to Tipperary". It is a long way for the daltaí na hÉireann go léir and na daoine óga. There are no educational supports for them. There are five boys' national schools that have all come together now and they have the space and want to get movement here. They have space in a yard and there is the willingness of the principals, teaching staff and board management. The school is in a bad way. A town the size of Tipperary with five national schools bursting at the seams and they have no special educational facilities. That is just not acceptable. There are so many who need the supports.

As I said earlier, the organising committee of action for autism welcomed the Tánaiste's acknowledgment in the Dáil last week that the progressing disability policy has simply not worked and, in the Tánaiste's words, we need to change it. The Minister of State needs to get her hands on the issue and give it a good shake-up. The committee has taken the Tánaiste's offer and I provided the details today from a number of a number families who gave me some very special, sentimental and sensitive details in a letter I handed to the Tánaiste. I hope he meets them. They also asked if the Tánaiste would come down to visit Scoil Chormaic and Scoil Aonghusa in Cashel. I ask the Minister of State the same thing, teacht liom go dtí Caiseal na Mumhan agus agus cuairt a thabhairt ar an dá scoil sin. They do great work so I ask the Minister of State to please come to visit them. They do tremendous work and I know the Minister of State understands it but it would help to get a feeling for how they are there.

We need a major overhaul of the services. Then the children's and parents' nightmare often is that when the child reaches 16, 17 or 18 years of age, there is nowhere for them to go. They were inside special schools and then they are out of them and there are no services or no place to go.

Last week at the march there was a lady and, my goodness, it was heart-rending. It was the first time I had met her. She is from Cork but living in Cashel for a number of years. She and her husband have a buachaill óg and they called him a lovely Irish name which eludes me now. I met them in the crowd. She said she would have to apologise to her son when he got bigger for calling him an Irish name. My goodness. She told me he is five years old - cúig bliana d'aois - and non-verbal - níl aon focal amháin. He is non-verbal has not been seen by anybody at five years of age. Just think about it: a non-verbal child of five. I am blessed to have ten grandchildren from ten years of age down to ten months. It is wonderful, but to think of a child that is non-verbal at five years of age and getting no services. Thankfully, her husband is trained in and works in a special school and can do some therapeutic work with him. However, they cannot get any assessments or special supports.

I love the teanga, it is our national one and the lady has an Irish name herself and to think she will have to apologise to her son when he gets older for calling him an Irish name. I did not ask her why but it was for two reasons. One, it would be more difficult. I know one of my own sons got an exemption from Irish because of being on the spectrum and being dyslexic. That is one of the reasons. The other reason is the nationality in her blood and the culture, heritage and dúchas in her being to call the child that lovely Irish name which I cannot think of, and telling herself she would have to apologise to her son because she could not get services for his more than basic needs. He is non-verbal at five years. Imagine the trauma, angst, worry and stress in that house and not being able to get services.

There are a lot of issues. Money is not everything. The money is flowing in. The Tánaiste said about the health budget and getting up to €7 billion or something. There is a lot of mismanagement and a lot of wagons to be circled and fiefdoms and areas where people are minding their own patches and not thinking of the needs of those special children.

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