Marc Ó Cathasaigh (Waterford, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank everyone for the presentations. As Senator Ardagh said, it is lovely to hear positivity, although I know the witnesses are outlining challenges as well. I will share another positive story that comes with challenges and caveats as well. I recently met Amanda Fox of Cara autism support services. I met her in the company of another young woman, who I will call "Sarah", even though that is not her real name. Sarah has a self-trained dog. It has added hugely to her independence; she was diagnosed with autism in her 20s, but she has now found an avenue where she can manage her stress and anxiety. She has another comorbidity, which Dr. Coughlan spoke about, as well as autism. Her dog has unlocked a world of independence for her in a way that was not open to her before. That comes with the flipside and there are challenges. I have a question about self-training of dogs. Sarah, as I am calling her, has a Quality and Qualifications Ireland, QQI, level 6 qualification in advanced animal science. She took that on herself. The dog is fantastically well-behaved; it was with us in the office. It comes with challenges because she cannot get the type of accreditation for the dog that would unlock other things. Is this another avenue whereby we could bypass the waiting listing? Clearly there would have to be accreditation as there is no way that could be done without having oversight and some way of checking the level of training. Will the witnesses comment on that?

I think everybody understands guide dogs for the blind. I have never heard a story about a guide dog for a visually-impaired person being obstructed going into a shop or accessing public transport or anything like that. Are autism dogs as well recognised? I see from facial expressions across the room that they are not. I have heard stories of people being refused access to public transport. If someone already has an anxiety issue, having to explain the situation to a bus driver while a queue of people wait outside in the rain will not work. Access to public transport is another aspect of independence.

Mr. Doyle spoke about the cost-benefit analysis. He is absolutely right. It is fantastic value for money, as I do not need to tell him, and the cost-benefit analysis does not capture the quality of life or independence in terms of people's ability to self-regulate that deep pressure and all of the other things the dog will pick up on such as anxiety matter.

On equine therapies, having looked at the website, this looks absolutely magical. It looks fantastic. What is the distribution like? We heard about Kanturk in County Cork. Are there other centres with a similar offering in other parts of the country? Being parochial, I am interested in hearing if there is something in the south east. Is there a service in County Waterford? Is there an opportunity to develop something similar?