Letters to the Editor: State is failing to support people with autism
State The And 'lets Support Children' To Failing By Diagnosis, Intervention, Provide Down Picture: File
I am a teacher who happens to be autistic. The State continues to let down children in the Irish education system by its failure to provide timely diagnosis, but also interventions and supports to children once identified.
In fact, I would go as far to say its failure is tantamount to emotional abuse. As someone who was not identified as being autistic in childhood, the sense of being different and not knowing why this was the case haunted me. It had a huge impact on how I felt about myself.
Now knowing that I am autistic later on in life has meant that I am more compassionate towards myself.
The State not only fails neurodivergent children, but also adults. The support services are non existent for adults and where supports were provided, eg UMAAP training for ADHD, the HSE has recently ceased funding.
This Government receives an F when it comes to supporting people with disabilities.
This week, RTÉ tried — once again — to avoid accountability by invoking self-serving confidentiality clauses that brushed generous settlements with former employees under a very opaque carpet.
A simple piece of legislation would bring this dodgy, destructive, and distasteful side-stepping to an end. Why not make it illegal to apply a confidentiality clause to any expenditure by Government, semi-state companies, or any other entity funded by the public purse in dealings with employees?
There would be objections, but that would do no more than help identify those already gaming the system. We could call it the Montrose Act, ensuring that at least one good thing comes from the unfolding fiasco.
Sadly, the usual caveat applies — don’t hold you breath.
Siún Ní Raghallaigh is quoted as saying “I neglected to recollect” and Media Minister Catherine Martin reported that she was repeatedly “misinformed” by the RTÉ chair in relation to former executives' exit packages.
This language is worryingly similar to that famous phrase used by Brian Lenihan; “mature recollection”. He was dismissed by President Hilary.
Siún Ní Raghallaigh has resigned. Who knows what is in store for Ms Martin?
Nearly everyone has heard of at this stage, but maybe not — which kind of got lost, understandably, in the wake of success that followed .
At St John’s Theatre and Arts Centre in Listowel, we showed to an audience of around 50 people earlier this month to almost universal acclaim. It is one of the few big screen films that has Gaelic football front and centre. As its leading star says in your editorial: “Irish film is in a great place. And I’m proud to call myself a part of this industry” (Opinion, February 21).
Hear, hear!
Article 41.2 requires the State to “endeavour to ensure that mothers shall not be obliged by economic necessity to engage in labour to the neglect of their duties in the home".
Thus, it seeks to avoid the neglect of children due to financial pressures.
For anyone who finds the inclusion of the word “duties” objectionable, it is also found in the section of the Constitution dealing with children, where Article 42A.2 tells us that parents have “duties” to their children.
In the first instance, these are met in the home.
Éamon de Valera — the main architect of our Constitution — had personal reasons for putting this provision into the Constitution. Born in New York, and without financial help from his father, his mother found that she was unable to simultaneously go to work and care for him. So, in spite of his pleading, he was sent to be reared by relatives in Ireland.
Across the world, societies which have become so focused on economics that they have neglected home and family life are slowly waking up to the consequences. Recently, the South Korean president said that their plummeting birth rate was their top priority. Current figures suggest that the Korean people are on a trajectory to extinction.
Perhaps those who drafted our Constitution all those years ago had the enlightened foresight to realise that if we do not take care of the human ecological basics, so essential for the next generation to flourish, then we will no longer exist as a people.
The recent statistics revealing the number of assaults and fights on our rail services should be a wake up call for our authorities.
The Government’s reaction is to contact the Garda Commissioner to have frontline gardaí patrol specific train or tramlines, on a temporary basis, in order to assuage the fears of travellers. This temporary fix, like all fixes, only lasts for a limited period of time and will revert to type.
While Operation Saul — a Garda initiative focusing on public transport — has had some success and a reduction in some categories of assault and public order incidents, using much-needed frontline resources, a dedicated transport police with proper powers of arrest, detention, and charge could alleviate the nuisance factor that ordinary passengers have to put up with every day and also give them a sense of security.
If you are a user of public transport, this is time to ask politicians why they are against this initiative — while informing them that your vote matters.
That they have covered it openly and extensively is beyond doubt. And,
unlike his predecessors, Kevin Bakhurst turns up to be interviewed. And he turns up to the Oireachtas sub-committees.
But a common thread is how these broadcasters refer to their employer; as “the organisation”. Never “our organisation”. Perhaps it is an attempt to distance themselves from the senior management and the board of RTÉ?
It should not be forgotten that a cohort of those asking the questions form part of the overall malaise within RTÉ.
These are the contractors; paid by public monies (per the licence fee) via agent-negotiated contracts, many of which still involve very large sums of money. Indeed, it is this contract and fees culture which led to the revelations in June 2023.
The refusal, on legal advice, of the director general to provide the financial details of the exit packages he himself approved surely plunges the credibility of RTÉ to a new level.
As the wider continent of Europe grapples with the consequent shifting sands, Ireland can expect closer scrutiny of its security and defence posture, especially in terms of whether we present a vulnerable point of entry for clandestine actors that might ultimately threaten regional security. Recent rumblings of Ireland being a freeloader in geographical security and defence are case in point.
As a nation that aspires to continue to punch above its weight internationally, it is important not to avoid situations that might present awkward questions pertaining to our posture on security and defence. It is also important to be exposed to having to read the room in the context of articulating and justifying our policy and ideas on these issues.
In these circumstances, the recent attendance of both An Taoiseach and An Tánaiste at this year’s Munich Security Conference is relevant, timely, and instructive for all citizens.