Micheál Carrigy (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)

I too was in the audiovisual room yesterday where we were touched by the life experiences we heard of Ciara and others, including Harvey’s family. It is only right that we as a Government and a nation must do better. I fully support the motion of support in the Minister, Deputy Harris. He is honest and open. He is a leader; he is our leader and he is my leader and he turns aspirations into actions, as he said earlier. I chaired the Joint Committee on Autism and I challenged him to do more. We challenged him to provide more third level education and he did that. Eleven universities now provide courses for kids with intellectual disabilities and autism and one was just launched in Limerick on Monday. We challenged him for extra places; he provided over 100 places across the therapies not only in colleges here but also in Northern Ireland. We challenged him on assessment of need; he provided €10 million in 2024 for over 1,000 assessments of need and only last week there was €20 million in budget 2026 for more. We need more people like Simon Harris in government who are dedicated to public service.

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