It was “deeply disappointing” and a “jaw-dropping surprise” to hear Kerry TD Danny Healy-Rae suggest that a lack of vitamins causes autism, an autistic advocate has said.
Concern has grown in the community since Mr Healy-Rae made the comments in the Dáil on Wednesday during a discussion on a Sinn Féin motion on special education.
Mr Healy-Rae began by saying: “Minister, it seems to me that autism and many of these complex needs are on the increase, we need to do more to find out what is causing it and if there is a reason.”
He continued: “It seems to me that many more are presenting than in my younger days. And even when I was going to school, it didn’t seem to be an issue at all at that time — very few anyway.”
He concluded: “So I’m wondering, and I’ve asked this question here before in different debates: is there something causing it — a lack of some vitamins, or what is it? We need to address that part of it as well, ministers, because there could be something causing it.”
A number of parents of autistic children were in the Dáil gallery to listen to the debate.
Aaron Lowry, who is autistic and has two autistic daughters, was stunned.
“My jaw absolutely dropped when he started speaking,” he said, noting other TDs were also unhappy with the remarks.
“It was unbelievable,” he added.
“Unfortunately there is a narrative carried on in the States at the moment with [president] Trump and [health secretary] Kennedy, I wonder is some of that starting to infiltrate into our own political discourse around autism, which is really regrettable.”
He pointed out that the charity AsIAm and others have done extensive work to answer questions on autism.
“The information is out there about what autism is — and what it’s not,” he said.
“To suggest that it might be vitamins was a wild statement.”
Mr Lowry has made a formal complaint to the ceann comhairle, asking Mr Healy-Rae to apologise and withdraw his remarks.
“We would also like to see him engage in some autism training and awareness,” he said, urging other TDs to support the call.
Mr Lowry and other parents approached the Kerry TD after the debate.
“I asked him to withdraw the remarks and issue an apology,” he said, adding that these did not happen.
The Irish Examiner contacted Mr Healy-Rae by phone on Thursday afternoon, but he said he was not in a position to respond.
Sinn Féin TD Darren O’Rouke, who put forward the motion, has written to the ceann comhairle on the issue.
He raised concerns to the Irish Examiner about the possible impact of this kind of misinformation being shared in the Dáil.
“We have to push back on all of that, it’s completely ill-informed and based on no evidence or fact,” he said.
“It’s pure rubbish and offensive to autistic people and their families. It undermines the challenge they face every day.”
He said it was “deeply unhelpful”, and called on Mr Healy-Rae to withdraw his remarks.
He had addressed the issue in the Dáil on Wednesday also, but Mr Healy-Rae had left the chamber.
Senator Laura Harmon, Labour spokeswoman on disability, said: “Danny Healy-Rae must withdraw the harmful remarks he made in the Dáil yesterday, suggesting autism may be caused by a lack of vitamins. Such comments are ignorant, wrong, and feed damaging myths that have long been debunked.”
AsIAm, the national autism charity, described the remarks as “most unhelpful and deeply misinformed.”
They said it was “a sharp reminder that Ireland is not immune from the growth of misinformation and disinformation that we are increasingly seeing in other jurisdictions.”
The charity urged all politicians to consider the impact of their words: “We would ask all Oireachtas members to think about the impact of their words before they use their platform to add to the pervasive stigma, myths, and hurtful stereotypes that not only cause hurt but create barriers to diagnosis and support and pose broader public health concerns.”
They emphasised that autism is “a natural variation in human neurology”.