Kieran O'Donnell (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I commend my colleague, Senator Reilly, on this innovative and necessary Bill which seeks to provide for a multi-agency autism spectrum disorder strategy and to provide for related matters. On 8 May, Dóchas in Limerick city held a public meeting to which all public representatives were invited. We met parents and got an insider's view of what it is like to care for someone on the autism spectrum.Senator O'Mahony made reference to one of the features they came across, namely, the inconsistency of services depending on where one lives. In one case, a child was living in County Limerick and did not qualify for the services because he was at school in County Cork. It is extremely important that we look to integrate consistency of overall services into the strategy, be it in education, therapy or mental health.

The next feature was the whole area of primary education. Many parents felt that the level of access to services-----