Teen autism campaigner Cara Darmody has vowed to continue her protest outside Government Buildings “hail, rain, wind or snow” for as long as it takes. 

The 13-year-old campaigner began protesting four weeks ago in order to highlight the failure of the healthservice to assess autistic children in a timely fashion. 

She hasn’t missed a week since beginning her protests – even after she recently fractured her knee.

She also plans to stage a monthly protest outside Leinster House, with the first date pencilled in for July 31st.

After she began her protest, Cara was invited into the building for a meeting with Simon Harris - who she believes is sincere in his desire to help. 

Cara Darmody in Government Buildings. with Simon Harris. 18/06/2024. Picture by: Newstalk.

“I think that he needs our help,” she told Newstalk reporter Stephanie Rohan. 

“If we go outside on July 31st and we do that every single month, then he will be able to say this is an issue, that there are people outside protesting and saying, ‘This is a disgrace.’

“Because I think he is very genuine on this issue, I think we can get change but I think what is happening is wrong and we need to help him on it.” 

Cara recently fractured her knee but - even though she described it as “really, really sore” - she insisted it would not stop her from continuing with her protests. 

“They all say, ‘Oh, a drop of rain and she’ll be gone’ - but guess what? If Simon Harris is listening, I’m not gone,” she said.

“I’m still here and whether it’s hail, rain, wind, snow, waking up at 4am, fractured knee, that hasn’t stopped me.

“When the weather gets cold, it’s not going to make me go away because I’ll become the first person to then build a snowman outside of the Taoiseach’s office.”

'The first hurdle'

In theory, any autistic child should be assessed within months of their referral under the Assessment of Need process set out in the Disability Act 2005. 

In practice, many children experience long delays waiting for an assessment. 

Employing a sporting metaphor, Cara said if this issue can be fixed, then the health service might be able to focus on improving other aspects of care for autistic children. 

“It’s like a 110-metre hurdle race,” she said. 

“You see races where if someone smashes through the first hurdle, they’ll smash into all the hurdles. 

“So, I feel like when they smash into the Assessment of Need hurdle, then everyone seems to be almost shocked when they smash into the services [hurdle and] when they don’t provide the school places. 

“So, I just think that solving the Assessment of Need issue would be the reason why other issues could get [solved] a bit easier because then you could get over the first hurdle and that could help the other hurdles.”

?"There are kids rotting on the HSE waiting lists and what's going on in Ireland is a national disgrace".

13-year-old autism campaigner Cara Darmody has said she can "no longer wait for the adults in the room to fix" autism services in the country. pic.twitter.com/no1n65iGdZ

— NewstalkFM (@NewstalkFM) June 19, 2024

Cara said she could not predict the “exact number” of people who will come to the protest on July 31st but hopes turnout will be large. 

“Whether it’s 20 or 100, I feel the more people we have, the better because we need to send out a message to the Government that this is actually a big problem,” she said.

“Something needs to be done about this and that’s why I’m going to be doing this every single month.” 

The protest will begin at midday outside Leinster House.

Reporting by Stephanie Rohan. 

Main image: Cara Darmody outside the Department of the Taoiseach. Image: Newstalk