Ruairí Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I want to raise the shocking case of 13-year-old Senan Maguire from my constituency, who is autistic. His case was covered by the Sunday Independent, which referenced the absolute failure of the State to provide services for Senan, his mother and father, Tina and David, and the wider family.

I could talk about major issues regarding community disability network teams, CDNTs. The child is not currently in school and I am not sure whether he has a secondary school place. There is a particular issue with child and adolescent mental health services, CAMHS, and CAMHS-ID. The fact is that when Senan was aged six he lost Sophia, his four-year-old sister, who had Down's syndrome. He witnessed the attempts to resuscitate her. The family have spoken to experts and believe there is PTSD. Obviously Senan's case has become a lot worse. In our area, there is a doctor connected to CAMHS-ID but there is no multidisciplinary team. We do not have follow-through in terms of a timeline. I would much prefer not to raise this issue here, but the situation is absolutely drastic.

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