David Norris (Independent)

I am glad of the opportunity to say a few words on this issue and congratulate Senator Ross for having raised it. Like my colleagues, I have been contacted during the years by a number of people in connection with autism. Some time ago a man from Sligo wrote to all Members of the Oireachtas but received very little by way of response. He sought a meeting with the Minister but did not get one. As I was abroad at the time, there was a delay in replying and I received a pretty snotty letter pointing out that I had not replied. As I can see some of my colleagues nodding, they must have received the same letter. I understand the man's exasperation.

A few years ago I raised on the Adjournment the case of a very caring family who had an autistic child and another child with problems. The autistic child was doing well with speech therapy which was withdrawn because of some relocation of resources within the health board area. As a result, the child started going backwards, which is the most awful thing about autism. When such services are withdrawn, the child starts to regress. For that reason I welcome what the Minister of State has said.

There are positive figures which I presume one can believe. It is splendid to have an increase in the number of speech therapists and those working in remedial linguistics from 100 to 2,000 but I want to know how many such children there are. That is the way we should work out the equation. Instead of saying we have this rate of increase, impressive as it is, we should accurately assess how many such children there are and then work out how many speech therapists are required to service them. Those figures are not contained in the Minister of State's speech, although that is the way we need to approach the matter.

I was impressed when Senator Ross first raised this issue on the Order of Business, having attended a committee meeting which obviously moved him. As the Senator said, each case within the autistic spectrum disorder is quite different. That is the very challenging aspect of the disease. It is not like treating measles because each autistic person has a characteristically different syndrome. That means there must be the most intense, personal, one-to-one relationship between the person who is helping and the autistic child. This, in turn, requires a considerable amount of resources. The treatment of autism is expensive but if we, as a society, say we care, we will have to accept the cost involved.