Mr. Somhairle Brennan:

There are a number of avenues. The main thing, as we have all touched on, is that the supports available for these students needs to be constant and available. Rather than reacting to a student inquiring about supports, the supports should be in place before the student even enters the institution. Just the prospect of disclosing identity or disability can have a huge toll on the student. If students know they will not have to fight, and that the fight no longer exists, they will be more likely to engage in a system. If they know that in order to access third level, which is a basic human right, they will realistically have to fight, argue and struggle to get the supports they need, they may not want to engage in that system. We could hardly blame them if that is the case.

It is also an issue of making it clear that the supports are available. When I entered third level education, I was not aware of many of the supports that were available down here. They were not talked about in schools or advertised. I got the information in a very second hand way as I went through college. I had many peers with similar experiences. They were not made aware of supports for dyslexia or the more common disabilities people encounter going into third level until they were in fourth year, at which point it is far too late to benefit.

The public diagnostic services would be of great benefit to these students. Ultimately, many students will be aware that they will require at least a review at least or some form of communication with psychiatry or something like that to get the piece of paper they need to avail of supports but they cannot access it because of the cost. To take the case of ADHD, there are no publicly-funded ADHD services in Ireland. They are all private and entirely inaccessible. It costs upwards of €1,000 just to access a diagnosis. Many institutions will not support you unless you have an official diagnosis so that you cannot access those supports. Having the supports and the basic infrastructure in place before a student even encounters the issues at third level would increase the number of students with disabilities engaging with the institutions.