Government must act now to help children with autism
Given the importance of early intervention and the fact that every day lost makes it less likely that an autistic child will be able to live an independent life in the future, it is a tragedy to loose precious time on a waiting list due to a supposed “lack of funding” for diagnostic services.
I do not accept that neglect of special needs children, in this case children with autism, is a just a matter of money.
The proof is that these waiting lists and lack of appropriate services of our recessionary times were also a feature of the Celtic Tiger years.
One issue that is screaming for attention and yet missed in the coverage of this tragedy is the ever-rising numbers of children developing autism and autistic spectrum disorders.
We are in the grip of an epidemic that worsens every year and our government seems unaware of it or unprepared to meet the challenge of the epidemic.
I initiated the European Autism Information System (www.eais.eu), which is part funded by the European Commission and led from Ireland by an epidemiologist, Dr Alvaro Ramirez of Co Clare, for the Hope Project. The project has created the information collection tools to gather reliable and comparable data on autism in Ireland and across Europe.
It is time for our government to take up those tools and track this epidemic so that we can get a picture of what is happening to so many of our children.
But tracking the increase in numbers is only a start.
As a matter of great urgency we must find out why so many children are being derailed from normal development and becoming autistic.
This is what we should be doing, but first our government needs to diagnose these children and give them appropriate treatment and education, and they need to do it — now.
Kathy Sinnott
MEP for Ireland South
St Joseph
Ballinabearna
Ballinhassig
Co Cork
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