Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation
Dail Éireann — 2021-01-21
============================================================

Paul Donnelly (SF), Dublin West

I want to raise the issue of supports for children with autism with additional needs. I have listened to many Ministers talk in recent weeks about the issue of children with additional needs and, to be honest, I found it quite nauseating. I worked as a child and family support network co-ordinator with Tusla for many years and I have worked with so many families who, prior to Covid-19, found it next to impossible to access services in an appropriate time. They usually waited years for assessments, early interventions, school-age teams and even placements. Today, I was in contact with a parent of James, who is eight years old and who is in palliative care. He lives in Corduff and has two days a week of service on the Navan Road, but he cannot get to it because he has no transport. I raised this matter during the last lockdown when this parent provided her own transport. She cannot afford to keep paying for a taxi so can funding be provided for that?

---

Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted.

Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2021-01-21/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:48:59+00:00
Sitting date: 2021-01-21