A teacher from Mount Sion Primary School is appealing to the government to prioritise assessments for autistic children.
The school has two autism classes which require a diagnosis of autism ahead of enrollment.
Speaking before the Joint Committee on Autism in the Seanad Chamber on Thursday afternoon, Mark Devereux said assessments are not being prioritised.
This comes as just one child out of 11 was able to obtain a HSE assessment for Mount Sion, he says.
"We received 11 applications for places for our autism classes for September," he told TDs and Senators, "Only one of these autism assessments was done by the HSE.
"The other 10 assessments were carried out by private professionals. Some of those are not up to standard, as we have come across over the years.
"It is ridiculous, on one level, that parents are having to fork out hundreds or thousands of euro to get assessments to potentially get a place.
"My other concern is how many families are sitting at home with kids in need of a place in one of our autism classes, that cannot afford an assessment."
Mr Devereux was very critical of the roll-out of the Children's Disability Network Teams (CDNTs) in the region, explaining that, in his experience, no part of the assessment and post-diagnosis process is getting any easier for parents.
"When I set up my class, the HSE at the time had the Early Intervention Teams," he continued, "and the School Age Teams for therapy.
"In my first year in the class, all of the children in my care were dismissed from the Early Intervention Team and placed on waiting lists for the School Age Team.
"That never happened.
"The year before last, Waterford transitioned to the CDNTs - as anyone with experience of the CDNTs knows, things don't get any better after that."
The Joint Committee on Autism was established to consider matters relating to the services and supports provided by the State for autistic people and reports to both Houses of the Oireachtas.
Thursday's session was to discuss public concern regarding the services and supports provided by the State and featured parents representative groups and self-advocacy groups.
"The Committee has already discussed Autism Policy with Ministers, Government Departments, State bodies, trade unions, professional representative bodies, and from parents representatives, and from autistic people themselves," Committee Chairperson, Senator Micheál Carrigy said in advance of the meeting.
"Based on what members have heard at these meetings, the Joint Committee on Autism decided to hold a roundtable discussion... The committee hopes that this opportunity will enable members to hear first-hand how autistic people can be empowered to lead a full life and take part in Irish society."
Continuing his statement before the committee, Mount Sion's Mark Devereux outlined the cases he has witnessed:
"One child in my class has received a visit from a therapist in school in the last five years.
"I have children now waiting five years for a therapeutic intervention from psychologists, behavioural therapists, occupational therapists, speech and language therapists.
"Some of our children have started to receive therapy and the reason they have started to receive therapy is because parents have been hounding the therapy teams, I have begun calling the therapy teams, and it was actually pointed out to me by one of the receptionists that if we flag and raise and seek to prioritise a case, the child will then get bumped up the list."
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