Radie Peat’s daughter was 17 months old when she began to worry about her development. After a year and half of waiting to hear “mama”, she started researching online and then called the doctor.
“When I looked up the signs, I knew instantly she was autistic. I rang the public health nurse and that was the start of the grieving process. You grieve for the child you thought you had and the moments you thought you’d share.”
A year and a half on, Peat has now discovered her daughter must wait until 2028 to receive the specialist services she needs. She turned three in January and remains nonverbal.
“When you raise concerns with trained health professionals they should come to your aid and say here’s how we can help,” says Peat, who lives with her family in Cabra. “But in Ireland, while dealing with the emotional repercussion and the shock of realising everything in their life and yours will look totally different, you also discover you’re operating in a totally broken system and you’re bound to lose.
“The level of naivety I had back then, I assumed I was operating in a system that worked and was fair.”
Peat, a singer and musician with the Irish folk band Lankum, has never spoken publicly about her daughter. However, she says the nightmare of navigating the Irish health system has pushed her to breaking point. “I feel a duty as somebody who has a public platform to talk about what it feels like to be a parent of a child with autism. People need to know the actual impact. And there are people in far worse situations than us.”
In August 2023, when she was 17 months old, the family’s GP made a referral for their daughter under primary care services for an assessment of need. This process had to be restarted when Peat discovered her daughter would not qualify for primary services and actually required specialist support through a Children’s Disability Network Team (CDNT).
After waiting six months for this assessment – the legal time limit to carry out an autism assessment – the family filed an official complaint through the AsIAm autism charity. Eventually, after “pushing, pushing, e-mailing and just being really persistent” they secured an assessment in December 2024.
[ Schools’ rules are discriminatory to autistic pupils, says autism charityOpens in new window ]
In January 2025 the family received confirmation that their daughter required CDNT supports. However, it was also confirmed that she would not receive these supports until July 2028. “Anything you read about autism says early intervention at a young age is key but she’ll be 6½,” says Daniel Lambert, Peat’s partner and chief operating officer of Bohemians Football Club. “The system here is broken. One doctor told me you’d be better off in any other country in Europe. But moving abroad is not a plausible plan.”
Peat says the autism diagnosis before her daughter’s third birthday was a “milestone” because it makes her eligible to attend an autism preschool. However, there are no places available in these schools.
“You ask yourself: will she ever say ‘mama’; will I ever get to have a conversation with my child? You’re waiting for her first steps, waiting to have little jokes with her. I’d thought about which school I’d send her to, I’d envisioned a life for her. You’re so distraught but you’re also looking after them, trying to do your job and just trying to get your shit together.
“My job is getting on stage with thousands of people and appearing highly functional. Other people depend on me being able to do my job. And I manage to mostly, even through the worst year and half of my entire life.
“Every single piece of literature is about early intervention. But in Ireland it’s happening way too late. As a parent, you’re watching your child’s potential to communicate slip away every day.”
Dr Austin O’Carroll, the family’s GP, says the system is “broken” and needs to be addressed at a “political level ... Just because this is a complex problem doesn’t mean there’s no solution. We need action and investment.
“As GPs we’re not just dealing with the impact on the child, this causes huge frustration and loneliness for parents. And there’s almost no support for them.
“We talk about the way we treat our children as a society is reflective of how humane we are as a society. And this is a bad situation.”
So many parents in Ireland are living in hell, trying to keep it together for their kids with no help
— Radie Peat
Dr Anna Beug, an inner-city GP and medical educator with a special interest in child and adolescent mental health, believes the significant increase in demand for autism services combined with severe staffing shortages is causing the system to collapse. Questions should also be asked whether the autism cases with the highest support needs are being prioritised, she says. “It’s about creating an environment in which these children can thrive and develop in their own time.”
A HSE spokeswoman said it was “not acceptable to have to wait an extended time” for assessment of needs or therapy and said the HSE was “sorry to those families who have had a poor experience in trying to access services”. She acknowledged that staff vacancies, a growth in the number of children with complex needs, an increasing rate of referrals to CDNTs and a rise in requests for an assessment of need were all causing delays within the system.
Some 12,920 children were on wait-lists for CDNT services and supports in December 2024, according to the latest HSE data. CDNTs provide services to 43,000 children through 93 teams nationwide.
The HSE is working on “additional recruitment and retention measures”, says the spokeswoman.
A statement from the Department of Children said the new Government was committed to enhancing services for children with disabilities but said the HSE was “experiencing ongoing challenges recruiting staff”. However, CDNT staff increased by 17 per cent in 2024 and work is “ongoing by the HSE to maximise the capacity of CDNTs”.
Peat says: “So many parents in Ireland are living in hell, trying to keep it together for their kids with no help. Any change that happens now will be too late for my child. But I don’t want any other mother or father to go through what we’re going through. It’s so deeply unfair.”
