‘I can’t wait any longer for the adults in the room to fix it’ — Cara (13) starts autism rights protest at Simon Harris’s office

The 13-year-old from Ardfinnan, Co Tipperary has vowed to return to the most famous doorstep every week, alternating between Simon Harris’ department and the front of Leinster House, until the next general election.

“I’m not a dosser, and I believe I’ve earned the right to be heard through sheer old-fashioned hard work. I will not go away until real progress and commitments are made,” Cara said.

Though she isn’t neurodiverse herself, Cara’s 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.

“My campaign is for the Government to pay for all autism assessments and services for those children that are waiting years to access these basic entitlements. I also want the Government to ensure that the Assessment Of Needs (AON) legislation is fully complied with within a stated timeframe,” said Cara.

“I’m not doing this for my family. I’m doing this for everyone else as well. I want to protest the grave injustice of children not receiving early intervention, thereby causing permanent damage to them. I’m going to continue this protest until at least the next general election,” she added.

For Simon Harris there will probably be a sense of deja-vu about Cara’s quest, because he himself has stated that his entry into politics came about by lobbying as a young teenager for better services for neuro-divergent children.

His own driving force was that his younger brother Adam was diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome and Simon then started campaigning for better information and services for families.

“Unfortunately, the diagnostic process in this country is appalling. You drag people through hospitals and from one doctor to another,” he explained as a 15-year-old.

Now it is Cara outside Simon Harris’s office calling for change.

“I was told by the previous two Taoisigh that they promised me change, but they didn’t deliver it, and I decided that I cannot wait for the adults in the room any longer. It is a national disgrace what is going on with the waiting assessments. There are 20,000 children rotting on HSE waiting lists,” she told the Irish Independent.

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

Two years ago at the age of 11 Cara sat a Junior Cycle Maths exam for charity and received her score of 97pc on The Late Late Show, raising €40,000 for charity as well as awareness of autism issues.

She then sat the Leaving Cert Maths exam in June last year while still in national school, again scoring 97pc and raising €42,000 for charity.

In November 2022 she became the youngest child to ever give evidence to an Oireachtas Committee.