SERVICES for young people with autism in the Mid West are sparse, Fianna Fáil TD Willie O’Dea told Taoiseach Simon Harris in the Dáil.
The Taoiseach, the Limerick TD said, will be aware of the difficulties families encounter in accessing mental health services, particularly for children and young people.
“An organisation in Limerick called Dóchas Midwest Autism Support caters for 200 young people and children each week and it has direct access to 300 families. It recently applied for a children’s disability services grant and was refused for reasons that were incomprehensible to me. If it had succeeded, it would have doubled its capacity,” Deputy O’Dea explained.
“Services for young people with autism in the Mid West are sparse and would be infinitely worse if this organisation did not exist.”
The Limerick politician asked if the government intends to increase provision for organisations like this as they do invaluable work and deals with families that are often under great stress.
“Can the Taoiseach confirm whether the grant will be available again in the not-too-distant future?” he asked.
In response, Minister of State at the Department for Health, Mary Butler, said that there are some children with dual diagnoses who need the support of CAMHS and who might have a secondary diagnosis of autism.
“With regard to the mental health budget, €108million has been spent this year alone on various grants to various organisations to support them, but I will certainly raise the issue the Deputy has raised today with the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte,” she said.
“Many organisations send business cases to the various CHOs, and they are examined. In some instances, they fall down with respect to governance or accounts, but I will certainly ask the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, to look into this for the Deputy.”
