Micheál Carrigy (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I concur with the comments of Senator Buttimer with regard to international surrogacy recommendtions which have been accepted by Government. Great praise has to go to our colleague, Senator Mary Seery Kearney. We would not be where we are today without the work that she has put in over the past 24 months. I want to say well done to her for her work on that.

This morning, significant funding was announced under a town and village project, which I have been involved in for a number of years, to develop a skatepark. It is basically the start of a whole new recreational area in Longford town in an area known as the old dog track. There had been proposals for modular housing. It is an area that was zoned for recreational amenity. I think that is what we need to do by putting additional facilities in Longford town to look after the younger generation.

Yesterday, at the Committee on Autism, Fiacre and Carmel Ryan gave evidence. Fiacre is a non-verbal autistic young lad. He did his leaving certificate, and achieved a number of honours, some years ago. He started in Atlantic Technological University in Mayo recently. I will read a couple of lines which were spoken by his mother describing how he felt. He asked us to try to see past the autism and realise that we are the same inside as others. He asked us to please listen to the voices of those who have been silenced by our society and that it is time they are heard, valued and understood. He said it is some people's perception that people who cannot speak do not have intelligence. He said we do not assume that deaf or blind people are of lesser intelligence and asked why we would do so with autism. They are profound words from a young lad.

I hope the evidence they gave yesterday will lead to Government funding for assistive technology. The technology exists and is manufactured in the State. I hope we can allow children, particularly those who are non-verbal or low verbal, to communicate and show how intelligent they really are. It is incumbent on Government in 2023 to do that. The IT exists and is developed in this country. We need to fund it.