Gayle Murphy is a single mother who lives in Castleknock with her severely autistic 11 year old son Luca. She cares for him, alone, 24 hours a day and he hasn't had any intervention or therapy of any kind since last summer. Listen to her story.

Gayle says it’s been more than two years since he received appropriate or effective education from the State. He was given day service in a government supported respite centre, but the programme did not work out and Luca stopped attending in May of last year.
Since then, without proper intervention, Luca has developed problem behaviors - self harming and wetting himself.
I went to meet with Gayle in their home to get a sense of the reality of life when caring for a person with autism.
Autism Charity Shine put Gayle in contact with a voluntary advocacy officer - Geraldine - who occasionally helps out.
Geraldine kindly agreed to help look after Luca for the duration of this interview, but even so, you'll hear how challenging Luca's behavior can be.
Gayle started out talking about how their day so far had been...