Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I always give credit where it is due. The Minister stated "There has been a bit of a cliff edge for autistic people when it comes to the end of the traditional secondary school education", an issue we discussed in the previous session of the meeting. He is correct, and we will welcome anything that is positive, but some of the earlier witnesses spoke about funding. The Minister referred to €12 million, and there was a reference earlier to about €3 million a year.

In respect of funding for students with disabilities, he went on to state, "It also supports students from Ireland to study on approved courses in EU countries and in the UK, including Northern Ireland." In the first part of the meeting, we discussed getting out all that information and improving that. We have heard at all levels here that the ideas are there but that it is about access to the idea or solution and outlining what is available. How can we ensure that, beginning at, say, secondary school? Is there any programme whereby each secondary school can say to children who have some form of autism that there are opportunities? I have worked with volunteers, as have my kids, at summer schools of more than 200 students each year, and I know that information is not trickling down. The UK is now out of the EU on foot of Brexit. We are due to visit the Milltown Centre for Autism, the only 32-county specialist centre funded by the Department of Education and its counterpart in the UK. What will happen to the funding there if we try to cover it on an all-Ireland basis?

Witnesses who appeared before the committee earlier made reference, as did the Minister, to getting all the universities and colleges on board. He may not have a figure but I think he mentioned 19 institutions so far as being part of the pilot project. Is it going to be easily accessible for universities and colleges to enter this programme? We need it to be flawless and we need it to happen rapidly, within the next two years. Children are being left behind once they get to secondary school and they are not aware of it. The apprenticeship side of it excites me, but it is about how we can bundle all this together. We need to start in secondary school to make people aware of what is there and what is coming.