Cara Darmody won the Garda National Youth Award at the annual National Garda Youth Awards on Saturday night.
This year’s event took place at the Midlands Park Hotel in Portlaoise and awarded those who have positively contributed to their community.
One of those was Disability Rights Campaigner Cara Darmody, who has been protesting outside the Taoiseach's Department each Tuesday since last June.
The Tipperary native received a National Individual Award for her advocacy and campaign, and the Taoiseach, Simon Harris, recently credited her with €10million of Government Funding.
Garda Commissioner, Drew Harris presented the award to Cara.
Paula Hilman, Assistant Commissioner for Road Safety and Community Engagement, said: "Our Garda National Youth Awards are about recognising the incredible work done by young people in communities all over Ireland for the sake of others.
"They often don’t get enough credit for the variety of challenges they face in today’s society and particularly for how they responded to the difficulties they encounter, but they support one another and help their communities with great enthusiasm.
"Each one of this year’s recipients demonstrates all that is wonderful about our young people, and as Gardaí we are so proud of their hard work. We hope the Garda National Youth Awards are a fitting acknowledgment of the positive and meaningful contribution that these young people are making to society.”
The Citation about Cara read out by An Garda Siochána stated:
"Cara Darmody has already made history - At the age of just 11, Cara sat the Junior Cycle maths exam to raise awareness of the lack of Assessments & Services available to autistic children. While Cara is not autistic, she has two brothers who are, and who also have intellectual disabilities. She famously received her exam result of 97% live on The Late Late Show in November 2022."
"The following year, she went on to sit a Leaving Certificate maths exam to continue raising national awareness of these issues, and scored an incredible 97% again."
"Cara is the first & only child in Ireland’s history to sit both exams at this young age while still in national school, and this attracted much media coverage. Cara fundraised to strengthen the autism services available to students in her local Ardfinnan National School and Scoil Chormaic Special School, which her brothers Neil and John both attend."
"Cara’s activism eventually raised more than €75,000 for both schools, which is now being allocated to autism assessments, speech & language and occupational therapy services. Cara’s fundraising has now made it easier for students in both schools to be assessed for neurodiversity and to receive Services. For example, both schools now have a speech & Language therapist attend each week, paid for by the funds raised from Cara’s endeavours."
"Cara’s extraordinary mathematical ability is matched by her passion and activism. Her campaign continued into 2024 and has accelerated dramatically over the last few months. She has held extensive negotiations with the Taoiseach and his Government colleagues, and the Taoiseach has directly credited Cara & her campaign with the allocation of €6.89million of Government Funding to deal with the long backlogs of Assessments of Needs for autistic children. The Taoiseach labelled this as “Cara’s Fund” and promised her last August that he would increase funding to this Fund in the Budget."
"That promise was kept, and the biggest breakthrough of all came just two weeks ago, when the Taoiseach formally wrote to Cara informing her as follows - “Funding of €10million has been allocated in Budget 2025 to ‘Cara’s Fund’ which as you know is providing private assessments for long waiting families.” He also went on to say “The benefit of this initiative is very clear, 1,092 AONs (Assessments of Needs) were commissioned from private providers during the months of June, July, and August. The increased funding means that next year, we are guaranteeing that more long-waiting families will be able to access private assessments. It will also provide for more assessment and liaison officers in assessment teams. Thank you for your ongoing advocacy and support, as you can see it is truly making a difference.”
"Thousands of children nationally, as well as her local community, have now benefitted from Cara’s fundraising but especially from her incredible advocacy campaign. And thousands of children & families will benefit well into the future. Cara’s local community, and Ireland nationally, are all the better for everything that she has done."
"The Garda Judging Panel is delighted to award Cara an Individual Achievement Award."
Receiving the award Cara said: "I'm absolutely thrilled to receive this award from the Garda Commissioner. My respect for the Gardai is absolute, as my Dad is a former member. They have always looked after me every time I protested at Leinster House or the Taoiseach's Department and I am so grateful to them for that."
"This award is a recognition that peaceful protest and advocacy is still rewarded in this Country, as was seen with the Taoiseach's recent allocation of €10million towards dealing with the backlogs of Assessments of Needs."
"This award only encourages me to keep going, to keep doing what's right, and to keep fighting for those 100,000+ children that remain rotting on HSE waiting lists seeking an Assessment or Service of some type."
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