Cara Darmody to protest for autistic children outside Taoiseach’s Department until General Election

Cara (13) from Ardfinnan, Co Tipperary, will start her first protest outside the Department of The Taoiseach on Tuesday at 8am.

And she’ll return to the most famous doorstep every week – alternating between Simon Harris’ department and the front of Leinster House.

Cara told the Irish Independent she intends to keep going right up until the General Election to keep the issues on the agenda.

“The Government routinely makes announcements about funding for services,” Cara said.

“But for some reason, the backlog just seems to fluctuate between improving and actually getting worse.

“There’s a constant yo-yo factor in the stats and caught in the middle are children whose conditions deteriorate on a monthly basis.

“The promises from senior ministers over the years are one thing, but what we need is action.

“We don’t need any more reports, or studies or whatever further stalls tackling the elephant in the room here, which is quite simply this: the need to fund and properly manage autism services in this country once and for all.”

The schoolgirl has been campaigning for autism and disability rights for a number of years.

Though she isn’t neurodiverse, her two younger brothers, Neil, 11, and John, 7, are autistic and have significant intellectual disabilities.

And the teenager has witnessed first hand the struggles her parents, Mark and Noelle, have had in accessing services.

Cara is looking for four things from the Government – a firm commitment and timeline for needs assessments for children within six months.

These assessments must be paid for by the State, whether directly or indirectly, via reimbursement from the HSE, Cara stated.

Secondly, she wants a timeline for access to relevant services within months rather than years. The children’s care must also be paid for by the State, whether directly or indirectly, via reimbursement from the HSE, she added.

Thirdly, she’s calling for a commitment and timeline to hold to the “Government’s legal obligations under the terms of the Disability Act 2005 (in particular Assessments of Needs), which states the Government must assess and give access to assessments/services to children with special needs in a timely manner”.

Cara said this “means in months, rather than years”.

And lastly, she’s calling for a Government commitment to produce monthly progress reports, filed two months in arrears – like the National Maternity Patient Safety Statements published by the HSE – to state how many children get needs assessed and how many have started accessing services.

As well as protesting with her father Mark, Cara will attend Leinster House on Wednesday morning to mark the first anniversary event of the Joint Committee on Autism’s launch of their final report.

She will then again protest outside Leinster House on Wednesday afternoon from 1pm to 4pm.

Then the schoolgirl’s weekly protest will get underway outside the Dáil main entrance every Thursday from 12pm to 3pm, with appearances on various Tuesday mornings at the Taoiseach’s Department.