Ciarán Ahern (Dublin South West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

As the Taoiseach knows, today is World Autism Awareness Day. I ask about the supports and therapies that are available for children with additional needs in my constituency of Dublin South-West. As the Taoiseach knows, we are all being contacted constantly by parents at their wits' end who are seeking crucial and urgent interventions for their children, be it speech and language therapy, occupational therapy or psychology. Waiting lists for assessments of need are in their thousands and even waiting for a follow-up services statement and getting access to the therapies can take years.

In the Ballyboden primary care centre in my constituency, we have gone from five speech and language therapists in 2022 to one part-timer. Our local CDNT is struggling to get staff. It is competing with the HSE for staff because it is a section 39 agency. We have schools that are opening additional special classes, which is fantastic, but with the number of students with additional needs increasing, the wraparound supports for those special classes and the therapies the students need have to increase as well.

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