Tipperary schoolgirl to mount autism campaign from inside Leinster House

The campaign is similar to one adopted by climate activist Greta Thunberg, with 12-year-old Cara Darmody lobbying TDs every Wednesday.

Cara Darmody from Ardfinnan Co Tipperary with her father Mark leaving Leinster House after they addressed the Oireachtas committee on autism.

A sixth-class Tipperary schoolgirl is to mount an “unprecedented” lobbying campaign from inside Leinster House in a bid to get better services for autistic children and young adults.

Cara Darmody (12) will sit with her father Mark in areas where TDs congregate and ask them to support a petition she has submitted to the Oireachtas for better services.

The move is similar to one adopted by Greta Thunberg who, in August 2018 at the age 15, started calling for climate change action outside the Swedish Parliament every Friday.

Greta Thunberg, the 15, holds a placard reading "School strike for the climate" during a protest against climate change outside the Swedish parliament on November 30, 2018. Picture: Hanna Franzen / TT News Agency / AFP

Cara and her father will go to Leinster House every Wednesday to be signed into the House by TDs who support her. They will then head to one of Leinster House’s canteens, and she will start her own schoolwork studies.

At certain points throughout the day, she will stand near where TDs are passing and approach them and lobby them about her campaign.

She will then spend her lunch break from 1pm in the Dáil Chamber in the public gallery, watching Leaders' Questions.

“She now has a regular slot in her local newspaper, where she will write a column about her experiences in the Dáil,” said Mark.

“She will also grade the minister of the day on how they perform on whatever is the big issue of the day.

All my daughter wants to do is get a fair deal for all those tens of thousands of children and young adults who desperately need timely autism services, like her two brothers.” 

Cara met Micheál Martin in his offices when he was Taoiseach last July to raise awareness about the lack of autism support.

Later, in an impassioned speech to the Joint committee on autism, she urged health officials to “just do your job”.

Her appearance saw Cara, whose campaign has also led to her appearance on The Late Late Show, has entered the history books as the youngest person ever to address a Dáil committee.

The Ardfinnan schoolgirl has two brothers with autism, Neil, aged 10, and John, aged five.

Frustrated by what she sees as a lack of autism services, Cara became the youngest person to pass a Junior Cert exam — with a 97% result in maths — last summer in a bid to help raise awareness and funding for better services locally and nationally.

She submitted her petition to the Oireachtas committee on public petitions last week.

It calls for State funding for autistic services the HSE is responsible for and the introduction of an independent body to investigate complaints against the HSE.

Cara, who is planning to also be the youngest ever to sit Leaving Cert Maths exams in June, has also called for a full review of carers allowance, with the involvement of all stakeholders, including Family Carers Ireland.

“As far as the HSE’s responsibility is concerned, it covers initial assessments, and therapy and other services that follow those assessments,” Mark said.

“The services include speech and language therapy.

“The problem is the HSE can’t provide the services in a timely matter.” 

In his severely autistic son Neil’s case, he has a March 31 date for a reassessment of the ten-year-olds intellectual disability.

The €1,700 assessment, which is nearly three years overdue, will be carried out in a private clinic and will be paid for by the Darmody family who have saved up to pay for it.

The assessment is needed urgently, according to the HSE’s own experts, who - on February 25, 2020 - produced a report which recommended he be assessed “as a priority”.