The Taoiseach is aware of who Cara Darmody is. Cara is here today in the Gallery with her dad, Mark. She is directly in front of the Taoiseach so he might give her a wave. She is the most high-profile autism advocate in Ireland today. She recently sat the junior cycle maths exam at only 11 years of age to raise awareness of the lack of therapies and assessments for autistic children. She received an incredible result of 97%, which was delivered live on "The Late Late Show". She has received the award for Munster Young Carer of the Year, she has received a Tipperary person award and she presented testimony at an Oireachtas committee only last week. She will now sit her leaving certificate at the age of 12 in an effort to raise awareness of the crisis for the 1,800 children who are waiting for assessments and supports. While her family could get an assessment for her brother, Neil, it cost approximately €1,730. Why is that so? Why can the HSE not deal with these people? She has to sit and watch Neil - and I was in the house last night - who has the mental age perhaps of a six-month-old. At the age of 12, she sees self-harming and him injuring himself and she has to endure that.

I thank the Deputy.

She is a very special national advocate. They raised so much money and not a penny of it has gone towards themselves, but it is so that other people can get services. Surely this must be corrected. On the Taoiseach’s last day in office, I hope that he will give a reasonable response that the Government will do something for these people who so badly need to be recognised and supported.

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. We met in the office some months ago where we discussed these issues. It is not acceptable and I have said this repeatedly. I have convened meetings with all the relevant Ministers in the areas of education and health. There is an issue with the roll-out of the progressing disability services programme. That had an impact, in my view, on the availability of therapists in special schools and therapists more generally, which is patchy across the country. There is not a sufficient number of therapists in place to provide for children on the health side of things. While the education side has responded well, the health side has not. The HSE is saying that the recruitment of therapists is its biggest problem and challenge for assessments. We will go back to get this issue sorted.