Brian Stanley: Calls to Cut Autism Waiting Lists and Fix Transport Access
Brian Stanley spoke about gaps in disability services, highlighting rising autism diagnoses, lengthy diagnostic waits, staff shortages on child and disability network teams, and transport accessibility problems. He welcomed the state's ratification of the UN Convention on Disability Rights and the Government's strategy but said implementation is too slow and needs urgent improvement.
He noted that autism diagnosis has increased, which he described as positive, but warned that assessment timeliness is unacceptable. He singled out a 16 months waiting list for many families and called for that delay to be reduced.
He told the minister there is a chronic shortage of staff on child and disability network teams. The shortage, he said, is causing assessments to be delayed further or become unavailable for children with suspected autism or other special needs.
He acknowledged some progress in access to buses and public transport but said much more is required, particularly in rural Ireland. He commended the Irish Wheelchair Association for highlighting access issues and criticised the requirement for a minimum 24-hour pre-booking on some services.
Recalling his early years as a councillor, he described accompanying the late Margaret McCree and seeing first-hand the difficulties faced by wheelchair users navigating towns and footpaths. He used that anecdote to stress the need for practical improvements in physical access and service delivery.
Autism diagnosis and waiting lists
He noted that autism diagnosis has increased, which he described as positive, but warned that assessment timeliness is unacceptable. He singled out a 16 months waiting list for many families and called for that delay to be reduced.
Child and disability network teams
He told the minister there is a chronic shortage of staff on child and disability network teams. The shortage, he said, is causing assessments to be delayed further or become unavailable for children with suspected autism or other special needs.
Public transport accessibility and rural impact
He acknowledged some progress in access to buses and public transport but said much more is required, particularly in rural Ireland. He commended the Irish Wheelchair Association for highlighting access issues and criticised the requirement for a minimum 24-hour pre-booking on some services.
Personal experience underlining access failures
Recalling his early years as a councillor, he described accompanying the late Margaret McCree and seeing first-hand the difficulties faced by wheelchair users navigating towns and footpaths. He used that anecdote to stress the need for practical improvements in physical access and service delivery.
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Transcript
I welcome the opportunity to speak on this important issue. As a state, we ratified the UN Convention on Disability Rights, and the Government now have a strategy, and I welcome all of that, but let's see how we are doing on it. In relation to autism, the diagnosis of it has increased, and obviously there is more diagnosis being done, that is good, but it is too slow, there is a 16 months waiting list for a lot of families, that is simply too long, and that must be improved. The Convention asked that we promote and protect people with disability that have equal rights, such as inclusive learning, and can I just address the issue of the children with suspected autism or other special needs that need access to a child and disability network team. County Leash, Minister, there is a chronic shortage of staff on those teams, and what is happening is that the assessments are either delayed, the third piece are further delayed, or they are not available at all. In the area of transport, while some progress has been made, at one time you did not have access onto a bus or anything like that, some progress has been made, and I can see that when you use public transport, but we have a lot more to do there, and particularly in rural Ireland, but I want to commend the work of the Irish wheelchair association, who in particular have highlighted this. When I got elected as a councillor first, a number of decades ago, one of the things I had done was I went around with the late Margaret McCree, who has passed on to her eternal reward since, and Margaret was in a wheelchair and I was amazed to see the difficulties that there was trying to navigate through the towns and footpaths and everything else, and that must be improved. I think as well the fact that people have to pre-booked by 24 hours minimum on to public transport, we need to change that. Is my time up? Thanks very much.