Professor Michael Shevlin:

There is a national organisation we helped set up called the Inclusive National Higher Education Forum, INHEF. There are a number of programmes throughout the country. There were quite a few more in 2014 but they disappeared because there was not sustainable funding. The big breakthrough has been the programme for access to higher education, PATH, developed by the Department. That is going to bring about dedicated funding for these types of programmes next year. We see this as very positive. This is the real breakthrough. This has not happened anywhere else in Europe that we are aware of, and we are part of Erasmus programmes. This is the first time dedicated State funding has been provided for young people with intellectual disability to attend higher education. That is a massive breakthrough.

There are programmes happening in different parts of the country. There are other colleges that want to begin a programme and we have been supporting them and each other. It is very much an emerging area. It is not well established but hopefully it will be now with the proper funding and the proper infrastructure and support. We have received support from SOLAS for our programme. That was a recognition of the type of work we were doing. The Deputy is right that this is a very positive story but it is emerging. The infrastructure needs to be in place in order that in any part of the country, young people and their families can begin to plan from when the youngster is about 14 years of age. That would be the ideal age for transition planning, so they actually have real options and it is not just a day service or some other parallel system where they never get into the mainstream.