(Ireland) 13yo protester with 2 severely autistic brothers; wants deadline for reform

June 20, 2024, Irish Sun: TEEN'S FIGHT –‘Nothing has changed’- Brave teenager vows to protest outside Dail every week until election in autism assessment fight

A BRAVE teenager has vowed to protest outside the Dail every week until the next elections.

Cara Darmody, 13, has made the vow as she pushes for the Government to shorten wait times for Autism assessments and services in Ireland.

he Tipperary native set up for her first protest outside Leinster House on Wednesday.

The schoolgirl plans to do this every week until the next General Election, which could be next March if progress is not made on shorting wait times.

Cara is demanding a "date and a deadline” for when waiting lists for these services will "months not years"

The mission comes from a personal and empathetic place for the teenager who's two younger brothers Neil and John have severe autism.

The brave first-year student has previously met with Leo Varadkar and Micheal Martin on the issue and secured a meeting with current Taoiseach Simon Harris for today.

Addressing the previous meetings Cara said "nothing has changed."

Speaking yesterday to the Irish Mirror, she said: "The two previous Taoisigh told me that they were going to be giving me change and they promised me change but they didn’t deliver that. So I am up here trying to get change and Simon Harris has agreed to meet me tomorrow.

“Even if Simon Harris himself says I am 100 per cent right, the issue is getting the change.

What I am trying to achieve is a deadline and a date. I will be here every single week until the next general election. I’m not going to give up.”

The intelligent teenager started campaigning when she was just 11-years-old.

Her protest stance comes as the HSE confirm as of March there are 8,893 children in Ireland waiting on overdue assessments.

Under the current Disabilities Act the HSE must start an assessment within three months of an application being submitted.

The act also states that the whole process should be completed within six months in total.

The HSE have said that these times may be exceeded in "exceptional circumstances" but that full explanations and time frames must be given to the applicant.

Amid his daughter's protesting efforts Cara's father has claimed that the HSE has given them preferential treatment due to their high profile protests.

Mark Darmody has said he plans to raise this with the Taoiseach during today's meeting explaining how the two assessments he and his wife Noelle commissioned privately for their two boys had been paid.

The HSE does not refund or fund autism assessments commissioned by parents which as led Mark to believe the HSE has funded his family because of their known protest efforts.

'SCANDALOUS'

Mark has blasted the action and explained how he believed this was being done for all families.

He told the Irish Examiner: "I t is nothing short of scandalous that on one hand the HSE says publicly it does not fund privately commissioned assessments, but in private, it does.

“We have spent a small fortune for our sons and simply asked for the costs of assessments they had failed to do to be paid by the HSE because the waiting lists for them were too long.

“They paid for them, and we thought they were doing that for other parents but we have since discovered that the HSE says it doesn’t fund them."

He added: "We have to assume a big reason they have funded our sons' two special needs assessments is because Cara has appeared on TV, and in papers.

"That is an appalling way to run a health service."

Mark outlined waiting for services is damaging autistic children's development.