Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

Today marks World Autism Awareness Day. Aligning themselves with the occasion, there will be up to 200 parents and guardians who will sleep on the pavement outside Dáil Éireann today. It will be the second time they have done so in a number of weeks. They are doing so for a plethora of different reasons related to assessments, diagnoses, therapies, school places and access to SNA provision. However, there is a common thread that aligns with all of those parents and guardians, that is, paying for what their children are being asked to go without.

Acting upon that pain, those parents became legal experts. They have had to take on therapeutic practices themselves just to provide the service to their children that the State is failing to give. We have talked about it in a number of different ways. I understand what the Taoiseach will say to us regarding what his intention is. I hope he might, or somebody from his Department or members of his Government will-----

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