Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chairperson and committee members for inviting me to attend today and providing me with the opportunity to update members on some of the work under way by my Department. Many members will already know, and as the Chair has alluded to, this issue is a major motivating issue for me. It is one on which the country has been making significant progress. We are improving educational services for people with autism and autistic people. We have seen this through primary and secondary school, although I accept that more work needs to be done. I have a real concern, one which the Chair and I have discussed many times, about the cliff edge that many autistic people and students with an intellectual disability experience when they leave second level education.

While there are examples of good practice - the committee heard about some of those earlier and they are services that we are all very proud of - there is an onus on us to ensure all autistic students and persons have an opportunity to reach their full potential and access the third level education system in a way that works for them, be that through further educational training, the apprenticeship programmes or through higher education.

Third level education and the transition to third level can be an overwhelming process for any student. It is a very big change in life and one of life's milestones. We have to acknowledge that for a person with a disability, and often for autistic students, it can be extremely daunting. Suddenly leaving a familiar environment and the routine of that familiar environment in one's town or community and perhaps arriving in a very large institution can be daunting. It is important that we put the supports in place, at a very practical level, to assist people in those environments. That is why I am pleased that over the past two years, the Department has specifically funded nine autism-friendly rooms. We are also funding tactile way-finding maps. Again, autistic students and persons with a disability are being dropped in a very large university and told to find their way around. That can be an overwhelming experience, so providing people with way-finding maps to help them navigate the campus in a practical way that works for them is important.

I am particularly pleased that took a new policy and funding step forward in terms of pathways and access for autistic students and students with an intellectual disability earlier this year. In August, I launched the fourth national access plan, a Strategic Action Plan for Equity of Access, Participation and Success in Higher Education. An additional €35 million will be provided to deliver the targets in the new national access plan or NAP. I am delighted many of the committee members were with me on the occasion of the launch of the NAP. We have made huge progress in increasing participation rates in higher education across levels. Our target under the last national access plan was 8% for people with disabilities. We have surpassed that, with current figure standing at 12.3%.

Behind the headline figures lies another truth, namely, that the level of access we rightly celebrate has not been achieved across all parts of society or the disabled population to an equal level. Our new national access plan endeavours to change that further and the plan names three priority groups. These are students who are socio-economically disadvantaged, students who are members of the Irish Traveller and Roma communities and students with disabilities, including people with intellectual disabilities and autistic people. There are a number of new groups on whom we have never focused in terms of targets and calling out, including those in the care system and those with intellectually disabilities.

We want, and I would argue that we need, a truly inclusive third level system where a person's background, experience or gender or whether he or she has a disability has a bearing on his or her ability to attend or succeed. The plan will measure access but it has, for the first time, put a specific emphasis on participation and the successful conclusion of higher education. It can be a little flattering to the figures to say it is great that this number of people accessed high education. While I do not in any way underestimate the importance of that, just as important is what happens when people

access higher education. What does their journey look like? Do they manage to successfully complete higher education and can they fully participate like all students? What happens when they leave university?

I am particularly delighted that we have introduced a new funding stream under the programme for access to higher education funding or PATH 4. We have been working on this for a while. It is a new fund that will be rolled out in two phases over a four-year period, with overall funding of €12 million. I thank everybody for the widespread engagement on this to allow us to map out a realistic and phased approach. I assure the committee that in our plans the involvement of autistic people and their advocates will continue.

Phase 1 of PATH 4 is up and running. It is directed towards advancing universal design and inclusive practices. It means every university will get a pot of money to underpin what we call universal design learning, which will have a benefit for all students but perhaps a particular benefit for autistic students. I am delighted to confirm to the committee that we have now received 19 project plans from universities and higher education institutions that want to access and draw down this funding. The Higher Education Authority and the National Disability Authority are currently assessing these plans and their alignment with our goals to create more inclusive and autism-friendly college campuses. Some projects and work packages of HEIs include activities to support autistic and neurodiverse students as well as projects that will assist the readiness of HEIs to develop inclusive learning environments. I am pleased to confirm that all of that funding will be allocated next month.

Overall, these projects will lessen the feeling that persons arriving in a university campus might have if they are autistic and feeling lost without the supports that were available to them in secondary level education. Let me clear, however. This is a good thing for our entire student population. It will benefit everyone, which is the magic and beauty of universal design. This will help build the foundations we need. It will support student success for all students and learners in higher education. It will be of particular benefit to students with special educational needs, including students with autism or autistic students. This is basically about how we can make the campus inclusive, autism friendly and work for everybody. That funding is place now, projects plans are being finalised and funding will be firmly allocated next month.

Phase 2 of this new fund is the bigger piece in many ways. It calls on all of our universities to put their thinking caps on, get creative and think about how they develop courses for students with intellectual disabilities and autistic students. The fund calls on universities to do this in collaboration and partnership with local organisations, taking on board the views of disabled people in their community. We have put a pot of €3 million in place every year over three years for universities and colleges to pitch their best ideas. I am very pleased we have been able to do this.

The committee has just heard from representatives of the Trinity Centre for People with Intellectual Disabilities. This fund is inspired by that centre, as am I but I would also like to be inspired by the more than the Trinity centre. I would like to be able to point elsewhere in the country and say it is great that something like what happened in Trinity is now happening in "X" or "Y" college. I accept that resources will be required to make that happen and to stimulate the conversation. We want colleges and universities to come forward and respond to the challenge. We now have the funding so the question is what will colleges and universities do to make their institutions able to provide programmes that support autistic students and students with an intellectual disability. This initiative has the potential, if we get it right, to be a game-changer in unlocking that potential.

As the committee will know, we have what we call the fund for students with disabilities in both higher and further education. The programme provides funding to institutions to assist them to offer supports and services to eligible students with disabilities, including autism, so students can access fully, participate in and successfully complete their chosen course of study.

It also supports students from Ireland to study on approved courses in EU countries and the UK, including Northern Ireland. Overall, the number of recipients receiving funding from this in higher education has increased. A total of 11,800 students received the funding in the academic year 2017-2018 and that number was 15,145 in the academic year 2020-2021. Of this, 9% of students declare autism as their primary disability when drawing down from the fund.

I am going to take the rest of my prepared statement as read, other than briefly to talk about apprenticeships, given members will have heard from my colleagues in SOLAS earlier. We want to make the apprenticeship population much more diverse as well, and I would be interested in this committee's input through its work because, by the end of this year, we will have in place a new access committee under the auspices of the national apprenticeship office that will look at what we need to do to ensure every member of society, including autistic people and people with disabilities, can participate in apprenticeships. Apprenticeship provides an opportunity to target and widen the recruitment pool within the public sector and to meet the targets that need to be met in terms of Government commitments to increase the statutory target of 3% of employees with disabilities in the public service to 6% by 2024.

That was a brief synopsis of a number of initiatives that are under way. The PATH 4 is an indication of the scale of our ambition to create a more inclusive third level education system and reflects our policy intent to provide funding to develop specific courses and programmes to meet the needs of autistic students and students with intellectual disabilities. I am very much looking forward to working with this committee, that is, not just hearing members' questions today but also implementing in the work of our Department any recommendations that might arise.