Dr. Siobh?n O'Reilly:

There is very little research internationally on the prevalence of bullying of the autistic population in schools and even less research on preventative strategies for that cohort. We would like to see a preventative approach for the many, the some and the few - whatever proportion of the population falls into the autistic population within the school. There are nuances regarding how those preventative approaches would be developed. FUSE has a lot of experience regarding the general population of students. Every year, it checks with teachers and students about how the material and content have worked for them. That needs to be continued in terms of programme development.

The challenge with the autistic population is that because of the communication and social challenges, that would have to be worked into any prevention or intervention programme. It can be done but it does need resourcing and that is the million dollar question asked by the Deputy in terms of how that would be resourced. We are doing some research in the anti-bullying centre on a European project around the possibility of creating some youth advocates for those affected by disability, including autism, in our schools. It is a very small research project, however, and it definitely needs further resourcing.