Micheál Carrigy (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for the work he has done in this area. I know it is something that is personal to himself. As I said, it is great to see the funding that has been put in place in the various universities. I concur with other members and with the Minister that the reality is that when we have a model that is working and is seen to work, and we heard that at our previous session, we need to replicate it rather than looking for new proposals. My view is that the funding is working and we need to roll it out across all of the third level institutions.

With regard to Trinity College, it is great to think a university in our own country is the first in the world to have an autism-friendly campus.

Work to make Leinster House an autism-friendly campus is ongoing. I hope that will be in place in early 2023. The project has been agreed by the Houses of the Oireachtas. The diversity officer is working with AsIAm to have that in place within the next couple of months. If autistic students in primary, secondary or third level education come to Leinster House, we will have proper supports in place. It was unacceptable that we did not have them heretofore.

Funding has been provided to the universities. The Technological University of the Shannon campus in Athlone in my area has started working on this, but when will we see a situation where this is the norm in every third level institution, as it is in DCU? We need to strive towards that.

Deputy Ó Murchú referred to the additional places required in September 2023 in speech and language therapy and occupational therapy in order to fill the 800 posts that are fully funded by the Government but are vacant across our CDNTs. Unfortunately, it will be four years before those students enter the workforce. I agree that we need some form of scholarship, perhaps with the HSE funding colleges and the students then working in the system, but we will have a shortage for four years. There has been some discussion of looking abroad to bring professionals to the country, but are we considering an approach whereby people from the teaching and medical professions could undertake a one-year course in speech and language therapy or occupational therapy to try to fill the gap? Have there been conversations in that regard? It will be four years before the extra places funnel through to the system. Unfortunately, though, we do not have four years to wait. There are severe shortages now. As Deputy Flaherty knows from our home area, there were only four staff in Longford's CDNT only a couple of months ago with hundreds of people on the waiting list. What other work is being done?