14-year-old disability rights activist to hold 50-hour protest at Dáil

By Gráinne Ní Aodha, PA

A teenage disability rights campaigner from Co Tipperary is to stage a 50-hour protest outside Leinster House in May.

Cara Darmody is campaigning for the Government to carry out autism assessments of need for children within the legal limit of six months.

The 14-year-old, from Ardfinnan, is an older sister to Neil and John, who are autistic and non-verbal.

She will start her protest at 10 am on Tuesday, May 20th and stay for 50 hours outside the front gates of Leinster House in a specially cordoned-off area.

The schoolgirl intends to study while protesting, because her summer exams start the following week.

“I actually think that I’ll get way more study done than normal as I’ll have very little else to do!” she said.

In June, she regularly protested outside the Taoiseach’s Department and has met several taoisigh to discuss disability rights.

Cara has also written to both Taoiseach Micheál Martin and Tanaiste Simon Harris to criticise the “disgraceful” breach of the assessments of need timeline.

“So, I assume that they thought that I’d just vanish – big mistake,” she said.

“They are breaking the law, they are law-breakers, there’s no nice way to frame this.

“Permanent damage is being caused to children by the State’s failure to assess children in a timely manner and it must end now. I have called for this to happen for several years, but it just falls on deaf ears.

“How can the Cabinet expect children of this country to grow up and respect the law, when the only law-breakers I can see are the Cabinet themselves?

“They’re not going to want to hear that type of criticism, I get that, but it’s true and they can’t hide from that. They are law-breakers, and I’m going to call that out big time.”

Cara said failures are “permanently damaging children” and are “unacceptable”.

To remedy the problem, she has called on the Government to declare a national crisis and to appoint a task force to seek solutions to any barriers around recruitment.

She has also called for the allocation of further funding to provide financial relief to parents paying privately for assessments.

She said: “The time has come for someone to draw a line in the sand and say that enough is enough.

“There isn’t a single politician out there that isn’t getting flak from the public over this issue so the time has come for everyone to come together and to stop breaking the law. It really is as simple as that.”

In December, the teenager was flown to Chicago to address an event organised by the Colin Farrell Foundation.