This is World Autism Awareness Week. Life can be challenging for both the parents of children with autism and the children themselves, and we need to provide them with support and funding. That is crucial going forward.

Sugar is our new enemy. The dusty white stuff is the cause of huge problems in our society, and I am glad we are about to start to tax high sugar items. We all need some sugar, certainly, and there are jobs in the industry, but we need to curb the increase of high sugar products in our children's diets. While I welcome the sugar tax, which is coming in on 6 April, just taxing the high sugar products is not enough. It will make them more expensive, but it will not tackle their allure. Young children want this product every day. I have a sweet tooth myself. Sugar can be addictive. Recently a parliamentary reply outlined that there is an anticipated revenue from this tax of around €30 million in 2018 and €40 million annually from 2019. The tax will add approximately ten cents to the price of standard cans of fizzy drinks and we need to worked harder on it. It is not enough to simply increase the prices of these cans. Manufacturers will find other ways around it.

We have to control how this product is treated by the consumer. According to a study published by The Lancet, Ireland is set to become the most obese country in Europe, alongside the UK, within a decade and that Irish men already have the highest body mass index in Europe, with Irish women in third place. Almost a third of Irish children are overweight, which is a ten-fold increase in the rate of obesity for Irish boys between 1975 and 2016, and a nine-fold increase among Irish girls, according to this study. These figures do not leave a sweet taste in the mouth. In fact, they are nasty. It is time for smart food training. We need to use the boost in revenue from this new sugar tax in education. We need to inform and arm the modern consumer with knowledge about what we are eating and drinking.

In our Fianna Fáil manifesto we sought to invest in sports infrastructure as well as promoting physical activity. I request that the Minister comes into this House to discuss the issue. The Government will receive this massive amount of money annually. It is vital that our young people receive the benefits, and I believe that education and physical training is the way forward.

Like others, I wish to raise the fact that this is World Autism Awareness Week. There are approximately 65,000 people in this country who suffer with this condition to varying degrees. Including their families, up to 250,000 people are affected by it in a very real way. In my surgery this morning, I met a 14 year old boy who was expelled from his school a year ago because they could not cope with his challenging behaviour and he has had no school for a year. I was in the Seanad many years ago when the then Minister, Dick Roche, brought forward a Bill, at my request and that of the Irish Autistic Society, to close a loophole the Department of Education had been using to excuse itself and to renege on its obligation to provide an education for children with autism. The 1945 Act allowed a derogation for parents who could not have their children educated because of intellectual disability. In those days there were no facilities for educating such children and this was used rather cynically by the Department. I am happy to say that an awful lot has happened since then and the Department has moved on hugely, providing special classes and SNAs, which are very welcome. What happens, however, when one has a child who has nowhere to go? This child has been at home for a year. He has intelligence and ability and can make a contribution to our society but he is left locked up in his own world with his parents. They have been offered a home tuition package but there is no one to deliver it so it is of no use to them. Meanwhile, time passes and the opportunity for this young man continues to fade away. I hope the Minister for Education and Skills and the Department will look into this and address it. I will certainly be approaching them about it.

Last year this House passed the Autism Spectrum Disorder Bill unanimously on 12 July, a date well known to us for other reasons. That is nearly nine months ago and this young man is one of 65,000 reasons we need a national strategy for autism and autism spectrum disorder. As I have said before, I will raise this issue every single week until I see that Bill in Dáil Éireann. It is not something that can wait and people are desperate. They have children with serious needs which they need addressed. The autism Bill will not address that immediately but if we do not put a strategy in place and do not have a co-ordinated approach, we are not doing our children and young adults with autism the service we should be doing them.

There is now a need for a strategy to address older people with autism, with longevity having increased hugely. I ask the Leader to bring the Minister to the House to explain why this Bill has still not reached Dáil Éireann. It will reflect badly on this Government and on us if this Bill is not passed into law a year after it was unanimously approved by the Upper House. The Lower House has not yet been given the opportunity to offer its support but I have no doubt it will be forthcoming.