Disability activist Cara Darmody claims law being broken as children 'left to rot' on waiting lists

Schoolgirl Cara Darmody, from Co Tipperary, protesting outside Leinster House as part of a campaign for better autism services. File picture

A schoolgirl who has held protests outside the Dáil for better autism services has claimed the Government is "blatantly" breaking the law and "permanently damaging children".

Cara Darmody, who recently held a 50-hour protest at the gates of Leinster House as part of her years-old campaign, told TDs children are being “left to rot” on HSE waiting lists to get assessed.

She said that an Assessment of Need (AoN) must be carried out within six months.

Addressing ​a​n Oireachtas ​committee in the Dáil, she said in 93% of cases, children are assessed outside the six-month timeframe.

Under the Disability Act 2005, the HSE is legally obliged to have a child’s special needs assessed within six months but it has repeatedly failed to do this over the past 20 years.

Among those affected by special needs resourcing issues are her two severely autistic brothers, Neil — a 12-year-old who was only formally diagnosed as autistic in December 2016 despite being referred by a public health nurse when he was aged around 16 months to local HSE child services as a child of concern — and John.

Cara told members of the Joint Committee on Disability Matters: “I cannot do anything to change the permanent damage caused to Neil and John.

“But I can advocate to stop damage being done to autistic children in the future. Let’s cut straight to the chase — I’m here today to call out the blatant Assessments of Needs law-breaking by the Taoiseach and the Government.

“Three different Taoisigh have made promises to me to fix this issue, and all have dramatically failed.”

Cara, from Tipperary, raised this among other issues when she met Simon Harris when he was taoiseach last year on the first day of protest vigils she held outside the Dáil and the Taoiseach’s Office last summer.

The teenager met Micheál Martin in 2022 when he was taoiseach, and also lobbied him to put more resources into special needs assessments and therapies.

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Cara, who got 97% in her Junior Cert maths in 2022 to help raise awareness and €82,000 in funding for better services for autism locally and nationally, also lobbied Leo Varadkar, when he was taoiseach.

Her father Mark told the committee that despite raising the issues with Mr Martin again recently and trying to get him to declare a national emergency on the lack of special needs assessments and therapies, he said: “He doesn’t buy into this emergency. He said it was just words.”

He added: “We are sleepwalking into a disaster."