James Reilly (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will truncate what I have written down. The Bill has various sections. Normally, I would go through them but I do not have the time. There are some very important things in it that are different, including things relating to advocacy and legal representation and, equally, the need to involve parents. We have excellent medical experts and allied experts in speech and language and behaviour therapy and other areas in this country but the expert on the child is that child's parent or parents. Unless both sets of experts are fully involved in the planning, care and delivery of any therapies that are needed, that child will not get the best result and society will suffer as a consequence because even the most profoundly affected of people on this spectrum can be more independent and have less challenging behaviour if they get the help the need. Lest there be any doubt about this, I will tell one story about visiting a major health institution regularly as a GP. I overheard one nurse saying to another, "His teeth will have to come out. We had better get the GP to sign him up to see the dentist." When I arrived, the gentleman in question got very disturbed. He used to bite people. He had bitten people's ears off and I had to re-suture them on and there was a lot of discontent about it. I arrived and said that I heard they were talking about X and was told we would have to get them out. I asked whether they thought that was the only way and was told that was what we needed to do. I said I would send for the dentist and get all his teeth extracted, but I then asked what they would do when he started thumping people. Would we amputate his hand or would we amputate his leg if he kicked them? Thankfully, there is a more enlightened approach now. Although I was the visiting GP and was not in charge of this person's mental health care, I could see that all he needed was to be given the space to eat his meals away from others and not be crowded by others who were equally challenged intellectually and would not understand his need for space. All that behaviour ceased.

In short, what we need is a strategy that cuts across all Departments and acknowledges that every Department has a role to play and needs to be informed. I am very pleased that the Minister for Health is here to take this Bill. I know he has a particular interest in this and will drive it. This Bill will ensure in law that a strategy will be in place within two years. I hope it will be in place sooner than that and I am sure the Minister may have some good news for us on this. The Bill will ensure the strategy will be reviewed regularly and that there will be an onus on every Department to report back on progress made to provide the proper services because the Department has been properly informed about the needs. This need not cost a huge amount of money. What it needs is understanding, including an understanding of how to get the best value for money. I specifically have not been prescriptive regarding what this strategy should do in legislation. It is far too complex and it needs to be left to the strategy. I assure parents who are in the Public Gallery, supporters of this Bill, medical experts and NGOs that they will have an input into this strategy. If we need to table an amendment to achieve that, we will do so on Committee Stage. I will not presume upon the Minister's goodwill but I see him nodding assent.

I again thank everyone in this Chamber from all parties and none and the more than 12,000 people who signed an online petition to support this. I ask them to keep supporting it and spreading the word because we do not want this Bill to run into the sand on Committee Stage. We want it to go through Committee and Report Stages in the Seanad and on into the Dáil where I have every faith and confidence in the Minister and the Minister of State, Deputy Finian McGrath, to see it through to the end.