Mr. Adam Harris:

I thank the Deputy. She asked a question earlier that I will touch on. What a lot of this conversation comes down to, and why the EPSEN Act has not been commenced, is that while we are all in favour of inclusion and equality, sometimes what is not accepted in terms of the concept of disability is that it costs money. If we are serious about it, we have to be willing to invest. Representation is very important at all levels of the conversation and it has been something of an afterthought to date. If we were to make the one reform of putting people with disabilities and their families on the key decision-making bodies in this area, we would see pretty rapid reform. This is something else we need to think about.

On exceptional abilities, there is a resource and cultural element. Leaving certificate reform is part of it because if there were more opportunities to do short courses or gain points by pursuing interests it would create a huge opportunity. The most autism-friendly school in the world is not inclusive of autistic people because they have scattered skill sets. People have to be able to work to their strengths as opposed to fitting within a system. Unfortunately, our system to date has been very much focused on a list of deficits, which aside from not working is catastrophic for people's self-esteem. We need to create within the education system a strengths-based model that identifies what a person's skills are and helps people to work through areas of education they might find challenging. To continue this conversation, the Centre for Talented Youth, Ireland does very good work and perhaps it could assist the committee further in this area. Autistic people are not just amazing at computers or science. Every autistic person has a skill, an ability and interests, and it is about meeting the person where he or she is at and using these.