Around 1-in-20 schoolchildren are being diagnosed with autism.

That's a threefold increase in under a decade, according to figures from the Department of Education.

It comes as a meeting was held in Dublin's North Inner City last night to discuss the struggles in finding services for children with additional needs.

Niamh McDonald from the Side by Side group says the current system isn't working.

“I'm not the Minister for Education and I'm not the Minister for Health - I'm a mother in the North East Inner City trying to rear her child,” she said.

“But what I do know is that we need massive public support.

“The shift towards privatised health care is not working.”

Ms McDonald said the Department of Education needs to “actually take a grip of this”.

A child is pictured during a training course at a service center of the Lingxing community in Taiyuan, capital of north China's Shanxi Province, March 28, 2017. (Photo by Xinhua/Sipa USA)