‘It is just such a fight to get everything’

FRUSTRATED parent Chris Walsh has given up hope of the current Coalition improving the lives of children with special needs.

“I have voted Fianna Fáil all my life, but I just cannot bring myself to do it this time, not with how they handled this,” he said.

His five-year-old son Christopher has autism but has been starved of appropriate treatment because of long waiting lists and inadequate services in Cork.

“I have no problem with the people working in the services, they are very helpful and are as frustrated as us. But there just are not enough people working and not enough resources in place,” he said.

His son is one of many who have dedicated hours with a speech therapist, but the case backlog limits the time to which children can look forward.

“It is ridiculous, Christopher has had less than 10 hours of speech therapy in the last six months. What good is that?

“Last year he could not speak, but he has come on brilliantly, because of what we are able to do at home ourselves. It is just such a fight to get everything,” said Mr Walsh.

The family’s home-tuition grant will not be paid during the summer.