Micheál Carrigy (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I want to support Senator Cummins and it is important that we do regular reviews of Project Ireland 2040. There are too many schemes within that which struggle to get off the ground due to funding or whatever it may be. If a quarterly check was done on it in these Houses, we would see more schemes progressing.

Any of us who watched "Prime Time" last night were abhorred by what we saw, namely a situation where people are proclaiming themselves to be psychologists and carrying out assessments of need for parents who are struggling to get assessments of need through the HSE. A thorough review of that needs to take place. I feel strongly about the following point, which is an important one. We had a meeting of the Committee on Autism between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. Nearly every group and organisation we meet has a core ask for the committee to review the Disability Act 2005. We are reviewing the Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Act 2004. It makes sense that both Acts would be reviewed simultaneously because of the strong crossover there is. I want to put that on record in this House. I said it at the public meeting of the Committee on Autism which we had last Thursday. I want to thank the Seanad Office again for facilitating that. We need to review the Disability Act 2005 and we need to start that process now, and in conjunction with the review of the Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Act 2004.