Pauline Tully (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister. As an example, I was recently contacted by a parent whose eldest son is autistic and whose younger son has just been diagnosed as autistic. She is familiar with the needs of her children and describes her younger son as pre-verbal. He needs support now. She has contacted the CDNT about getting him the support he needs prior to him starting school, because it is going to make such a difference. She keeps being put off and told she needs to take this course or another course, that those courses are full and she will be fitted in next year. She is just seeing the days, weeks and months slipping by as her child does not get the support he requires because the CDNT keeps telling her she cannot be included on these courses. She then heard, quite upsettingly, that one of the courses is not even full, but she is still not being offered a place on it because she has to do another course prior to that. She says she has undertaken so many of these courses already that she knows much of the setting up of the device is left to the parent anyway, so she finds this really frustrating.

I am aware AsIAm is working with the Department and going to pilot a scheme. I will come back to that.

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