Tipperary autism advocate Cara Darmody has achieved 97% in the Junior Cert Maths exam at just 12 years old.
The Ardfinnan student, who has two autistic brothers, has become known across the country for her work raising awareness around the discrimination facing people with disabilities.
After receiving the results live on Friday’s Late Late Show, Cara is now setting her sights on the mammoth task of the Leaving Cert maths paper this coming summer.
Speaking this morning on Tipp Today she said it’s all about helping those who need better services and she expressed her frustration with the HSE and highlighted what she has been saying to them.
“They listened alright and they said some things afterwards and I told them that it was surely not wrong of me to ask politicians and the HSE to just do their jobs, like if I can sit the Leaving Cert maths exam at 12 years of age, which I am doing this year for free, then why can’t they do a job that they are paid to do.”
Mark Darmody her father, says that there has been some progress thanks to her advocacy with all special schools to be directed to have summer provision this year.
Although he expects some push back, their submission on summer provision was accepted by the Oireachtas committee
“What you will see immediately is the industrial relations kickback , you just know that they will fight it tooth and nail. But look, the focus has to be on those kids who need help the most so not on whether someone can do it or not, Boards of Management need to be issued with legal directive that you need to have summer provision in the school and that’s just the way that it has to be because we need to focus on kids.”
