'No one is treating this crisis like the house is on fire,' says Tipperary teenager
Disability rights campaigner Cara Darmody is worried the government is not doing enough to help children with disabilities
Last week I met with disability activist Cara Darmody after she held a protest outside Leinster House and asked her what she expected from the new budget.
"This is a simple one - the Taoiseach said that he will put more money into what he calls ‘Cara's Fund’, the fund that he previously put seven million euro into to deal with backlogs in disability services. So let’s see what he puts into that. If nothing goes in, that'll be a broken promise, so let's see what he does".
Many people have criticised the recent budget as failing children, especially failing children who have intellectual disabilities.
There are still many areas where extra funding is needed to alleviate long waiting lists for these children that have not yet been addressed in this budget. In a statement in response to Budget 2025 Ireland’s Autism Charity, AsIAm said:
“AsIAm today welcomes some of the measures in Budget 2025 but is concerned that the budgetary measures fall short of what is expected and what is needed for the Autistic community and families in Ireland today.”
In their Pre-Budget Submission, AsIAm focused on the long-term choices the Government must make to ensure that the Autistic community is supported in the budget.
This included investments to make the education system more inclusive and other measures to help tackle the biggest problems that children and adults with autism face.
The biggest issues that need to be dealt with are long waiting lists for assessments, lack of access to school places and transport and little opportunity to live independently in the community due to a lack of residential care home places in Ireland.
On the same day that she was protesting outside Leinster House, Cara then held a two-hour meeting with the HSE's Head of Disability Bernard O'Regan to discuss proposals for how to immediately deal with the present crisis.
"I was also delighted to sit with the HSE's number two in charge Bernard O'Regan - I'll keep saying that no one is treating this crisis like the house is on fire, and I'm more convinced of that now after this meeting. He was really nice, but the HSE must now seek immediate solutions and I'll keep putting pressure on them to do that."