A Longford mother feels let down by the HSE over the lack of services for her non-verbal son.
Ann O'Leary says her 16 year old child Ben is currently on a waiting list to access vital speech and language therapy sessions.
However, she believes since leaving the early intervention programme almost ten years ago Ben hasn't received adequate support outside of school.
It's been over two years since his last session and the Longford mother is now worried her son's progress will regress.
Due to the rising costs of living she says she's simply not in a position to go down the private route:
"He's regressing an awful lot in himself. The few words he has, he's non-verbal like, but the few words he does have is gone. If I had €150 to pay a private speech therapist I'd have an appointment in the morning but I don't have that money. Just hitting a brick wall, no matter what I ask for him or get him to be assessed its like fifty other things I have to go through to get one thing done for him."
You can hear the full interview here: