One family's long road to get basic services from the HSE for their autistic children

With three children on the autistic spectrum, Mary and Michael Dunne would rather not have to spend so much time and energy battling officialdom, writes Noel Baker

MARY DUNNE once spent a time working in Blarney. When asked if she kissed the stone, she responds instantly. “I feckin swallowed it.”

She certainly has a way with words, but as she sits in her kitchen in Abbeyleix in Co Laois, she admits that she is a reluctant interviewee. She simply feels that at this stage, she may as well tell her side of the story.