Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I go door to door as often as I can and the other night in Raheny I came across two families with children in dire need of help from the Government. One family has a child in need of a psychological assessment in a school where there are 12 such children in need of a psychological assessment. Three of them will be able to get that assessment but this child is not one of them. The parent is now faced with the prospect of either going privately, at a cost of €650, or not having an assessment at all. What are the Government's plans to ensure every child who needs an assessment can obtain one in order that he or she can maximise his or her potential?

I came across another family where the situation was even more worrying and distressing, and the family has no problem with me naming them. Abigail, the daughter of Claire and Mark, was diagnosed with autism at the age of two. They also have two younger children and difficult enough it is to hear that type of news about the daughter they love dearly, they have fought a war since that diagnosis to get any sort of early intervention from the HSE to benefit their child. In recent days, they were told the earliest they will get help from the early intervention team in north Dublin is approximately six months' time. The child will be almost five years of age. She will finally get help almost three years after her diagnosis. She is approximately 150th on the list, but there are hundreds and hundreds of children on the list.

Unfortunately, in this country, not only must people deal with the difficulty of managing a child with autism, as well as every other aspect of family life such as looking after other children and doing their best for them, they must also embark on a war with the State. Unless people kick, shout, roar and scream, it appears they get nowhere, and it is utterly exhausting. I do not know of any other European country that has a waiting list of this nature for a child as vulnerable who needs this intervention. There may have been an argument a number of years ago, in the pit of an economic recession, that there was no money. We could have argued over and back about the priorities in budgets and so on. In the current circumstances, however, when it is clear there are resources, why must Abigail wait three years to get access to an early intervention team in order that she can begin the journey of maximising her potential as a little girl?