I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Emer Higgins, to the House. Before I call on Senator McCarthy, I welcome the new Deputy Lord Mayor of Dublin, Alison Field, to Seanad Éireann.

I thank her for being here and congratulate her on her election last night as Deputy Lord Mayor. I heard some of the speeches made about her and her fantastic work in her community and now for the city of Dublin. I thank her for being in Seanad Éireann today. She is most welcome.

I thank the Minister of State for being her today to discuss something that is very important, especially to the people in the Gallery. Both the Minister of State and I appreciate that across our health and disability services there are dedicated professionals working every day to support children and families with additional needs. My purpose today is not to criticise those front-line staff but to be constructive and ask what more the Government can do to ensure autistic children receive the timely assessments, therapists and school places that they deserve.

My question is as straightforward as I put it. What immediate actions are being taken to reduce waiting times for autism assessments, to ensure therapies are delivered without years of delay and to provide sufficient special school places for children who need them?

Over recent weeks I have been looking into this and have been contacted by various people and parents. Even though their stories are different, there is a common thread and the pattern is the same across the board. I work with a chap called Ger and his seven-year-old son, Ethan, has autism and global development delay. Although his assessment of need was completed over two years ago, he has only received a handful of speech and language therapy sessions and his family has worked constructively with the services. They have attended all the meetings and they have sought solutions but they are still waiting for the interventions that are recommended in Ethan's assessment. They are not looking for special treatment; they simply want the supports the State has identified as necessary.

Another parent, Samantha, who is present in the Gallery, told me she was advised to expect a two-year wait for her daughter, Eva. Out of desperation she went to Lithuania where her daughter was assessed within weeks and began receiving immediate intervention. When they returned to Ireland, they found themselves waiting once again. No family should have to leave their own country to access basic supports for their child.

The Cathaoirleach has welcomed our Deputy Lord Mayor, Alison Field, into the building. Alison's son, James, is 12 years old and is non-verbal. His family knew there was something wrong when he was two years old yet they waited almost two years for an assessment of need instead of the six months required by law. After receiving that assessment, the early intervention service basically disappeared for them and James received just a handful of speech therapy sessions before being transferred to another team where, despite being non-verbal, he has received virtually no speech therapy for years. Alison has fought for a school place. In the early days she got 19 refusals before securing a place in an autism class. Now James is heading for secondary school but she has already received 18 refusals for an appropriate special school place this coming September.

What struck me most about Alison is that she went to the petitions committee, she was heard in Europe, and the NCSE here has known about James's predicament since he was five years old and knew he would need a secondary school place yet here we are going into July and there is none there. Families welcomed the introduction of the new national autism assessment protocol and it is a positive development. Protocols are great but they need to reduce the waiting lists. Children need clinicians, therapists and appropriate school places. It is not simply about the assessments. It is about the entire pathway and too often we are seeing children waiting years for an assessment across the board. The system seems to be fragmented and families are left trying to navigate it alone.

The parents - Alison and Samantha who are present and Ger who met me - are not asking for the impossible. They are asking for assessments of need to be completed within the legal timeframe of six months and timely access to therapies, respite supports when families need them and enough special school places so no child like James is left without an education. I look forward to hearing what measurable improvements we can bring and expect and when we can expect them.

Before the Minister of State replies, I remind Senators to be conscious when naming minors that it may or may not have implications in the future.

I was given permission, so I did check that.

I welcome Grace and Ciara from Mayo, who are the guests of Deputy Keira Keogh. I have no doubt Deputy Keogh is looking after them both. I also add my congratulations to Alison Field. It is a huge honour. I have no doubt she will represent Dublin with huge grace and determination. As the Cathaoirleach said, it is great to see her here.

I also welcome Deputy Keira Keogh and her visitors, Ciara and Grace. I welcome Samanta Augulytė. I welcome and congratulate the new Deputy Lord Mayor of Dublin city and wish her a very successful year ahead.

I thank Senator McCarthy for raising this important issue. In many ways, what he has articulated here today is the need for different Departments to work collaboratively. He spoke about special education, health services, therapies and assessments of need through the Department of disability. I agree it is important that we break down silos and ensure that disability is a priority for every Department.

I am taking today's Commencement matter on behalf of the Minister for Health, Deputy Jennifer Carroll MacNeill. I thank the Senator for raising this and for giving me, as the Minister of State with responsibility for disability, the opportunity to respond. Too often, children and families can face duplication across waiting lists, whether that is through delays in access to therapy or delays while awaiting assessment. Our aim must be to ensure that these assessments support timely access to care, rather than becoming a barrier to it. The Government is committed to improving access to health services for children and families, and to ensuring that care is delivered as early as possible, as close to home as possible, in line with the principles and goals of Sláintecare.

In May 2026, just last month, the HSE launched its autism assessment and intervention pathways protocol, which aligns with the new single point of access model. In short, it is a streamlined referral pathway for children and youth mental health services, designed to help ensure that children and young people are directed to the right support at the right time through a single co-ordinated entry point. This is to be used and adopted right across the health services, whether it is through the CDNT team, primary care or CAMHS. It represents a milestone in improving services for children and families as it provides a more direct and clearer path for children and their families to autism assessment through existing services. Taken together, the protocol, the single point of access approach and the introduction of the community care record will help create a more joined-up and consistent experience for children and families accessing our health services, while improving clarity, co-ordination and speed of access to assessment and supports.

To support the implementation of the autism protocol and improve service integration, new in-reach teams are being established, with 11 to be established this year and nine further teams next year. Those 20 teams will operate in each of the 20 regions. Recruitment to these in-reach teams will commence in quarter 3 of this year. The teams will be tasked with building capacity within existing services, supporting integration and improving the flow of client care. They will work collaboratively with primary care, disability and mental health teams to undertake those assessments and interventions, as appropriate. They will also be used to help address the issue of children waiting for autism assessments across the multiple waiting lists.

We often get complaints from parents that children might be on a waiting list in primary care, CAMHS or a CDNT, but when they get to the top of the waiting list, somebody says they are on the wrong waiting list, and they go back to the start. This is aimed at stopping that from happening, ensuring there is no wrong door and that every point of access to the health service is co-ordinated. In particular for those seeking an assessment for autism, it will ensure they are looked at in this way. It will be very beneficial. I was at the launch. It is very exciting, and we really expect it to reap rewards.

Challenges remain, however. Waiting lists and access times are too long, in particular, timely access to services, such as CDNT and primary care therapies, which remain a challenge across the country. To address this, the Department of Health and the Department of disability are currently working with the HSE on a focused programmatic approach to therapy waiting lists. This aims to put in place considerable standardised infrastructure to support systematic responses to waiting lists across the country.

I am conscious of time but I will come back in again.

I thank the Minister of State. I see from her reply that she is in agreement that the length of time people are left to wait is not acceptable. I thank her for agreeing with that. I often think of "a stitch in time saves nine". We need to ensure that people are getting timely support, otherwise, it reduces the effect of the help when it is given.

If a key phase of development early on in a child's life is missed, that will have an impact later on. The brain is highly adaptable in the first years of life. Early support maximises a child's potential and can dramatically alter long-term development trajectories.

I gave the example of Ali's son, who is non-verbal. Early supports are essential there. It cannot be left with the parents for a number of years. I thank the Minister of State for saying what she said but I think we can do so much better in this area and her reply outlines that.

Absolutely. Not only can we do better, we must do better in this area. This is maybe an opportunity to reference and thank the Committee on Disability Matters for its assistance in pre-legislative scrutiny of new reforms that we will introduce from an assessments of need perspective. On top of this, we are also recruiting for therapists to ensure we have enough people to be able to deliver the care that children like Eva, James and Ger's son require.

This past year, we have seen a reduction in wait lists at our children's disability network teams, CDNTs. They reduced quite substantially last year and our aim is to reduce them again this year, while also dealing with the backlog of children who are waiting on assessments of need. The autism protocol is complementary to that and that is a specific pathway for children who may require an autism diagnosis. Some 40% of children who come through an assessment of need are being diagnosed as autistic. This is about responding to that, making sure there are multiple pathways for all of the challenges that are out there and to ensure we can deliver to children who need therapies and assessments in a more timely fashion.