Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

There was one, and she knows the battle I had to do. Imagine one for all of Kerry. This is a vital place. It needs to be remodelled or added to. I am sorry. We need to build separate residential units on the campus. There are no respite places in Kerry for elderly parents who may have an elderly son or daughter.

The only place I was offered for that very special person about whom I was concerned when her father died and her mother could not care for her, was in County Meath, up against the Six Counties. Her mother would only see her maybe once a year. That is all she would be able to afford to go to see her. The Minister must deal with that because we need to have respite places for elderly parents. We do not have them in Kerry. That is the gospel truth.

There are other issues such as the disabled person's grant. That is such a good grant operated by Kerry County Council. The Minister of State must recognise how building costs and labour costs have gone up over the past two to three years. Everyone is talking about it. To build a normal house has increased from €250,000 to €450,000. The situation is replicated when someone applies for a level-access shower. I believe our local authority is as good or better than many local authorities. It operates the grant system for disabled people, people who get strokes, people who fall and different things happen to them so that they need a level-access bathroom. We always got a grant of about €6,000 or €6,500 to deal with improving the bathroom in order to make it accessible for people with disabilities. However, €6,500 is no longer enough, given how building costs have gone up. We need to deal with that.

People whose children are diagnosed with autism have an awful problem. It is a heavy cross for a couple to bear. In recent days I met a family with three autistic children. They have different problems. It is taking too long to get assessments. It is important to be seen in time in order that the children can develop to overcome this problem. They are not seen nor dealt with in time. It is taking two or two and a half years. God almighty, imagine the burden and the cost for a family with three children to be able to manage. We are not seeing to those people. Wherever the people are who are supposed to assess them, they are not being assessed.

We also need to look at what is causing autism because I believe this condition is increasing and we need to know what is causing it to increase. I believe there are more children than ever with this problem. More work needs to be done to establish why this problem is increasing so much. We need to look at the root cause of it because this is an awful problem for parents to find out that their young boy or girl is autistic. We need to help these people a lot more than we are.

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