Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for coming to the House to address this issue. I apologise that I was not able to get back into the House the other night due to a roads diversion.

This issue has been aired many times over the years. I happened to be on a programme with a journalist recently who had to face that particular problem. He and his spouse found all the obstacles put on the course. I was thinking about it afterwards and I discovered that we all try to resolve those issue on a case-by-case basis. There does not seem to be a regime to kick into place as soon as the diagnosis is received. Early diagnosis is hugely important for children with autism and similar complaints but it should follow that the necessary treatment is available. Speech and language therapy, physiotherapy, occupational therapy or whatever is required, needs to be put in place immediately. Any delay will cause further issues at a later stage and further consequences for the child.

Invariably the parents go to the ends of the earth to help their child out. They make huge sacrifices such as going for costly private assessments to get the thing moving and they do it again and again. We have all dealt with the cases when an assessment is taking place, whether it be a mild, severe or profound diagnosis. There is a big difference between them. In many of those cases, there are situations where the parents have provided almost a hospital environment in their homes and the ways and means of catering for their child on a 24-7 basis. It has to shock us the degree to which those parents have to commit themselves. As one woman said to me some time ago "I have been at this for 25 years"; 25 years is a long time, albeit with some respite. Sometimes, there is no respite. For example, there is no maternity cover for speech and language therapists in that kind of situation. The child is then put under further pressure because they have to catch up at a later stage.

Looking at it again, I think it is necessary to put in place a sequence of events that kick in from the moment of diagnosis. Depending on whether a diagnosis is mild, severe or profound, the appropriate backup services should be made available to the parents and the child to minimise the delay. We should try to make sure the child's future - insofar as we can - is in someway guaranteed or helped so that they will at least be confident enough in the time ahead to be able to live their lives in society in the best way they can. It is important we do this now and that we recognise it. It is unfair to the parents and the children in question to have to go over the same performance repeatedly and come to the same spot. I have seen situations, as everybody has, where children have seriously injured themselves and have had to go to hospital. They have had to sit all day on a waiting list in the hospital with everybody else. There should be a system where there would at least be a recognition of the child's predicament and that the child would be removed from the queue, dealt with and the family sent home. Those are just a couple of the things that come to mind and I am glad to be able to ask the Minister for a reply.

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