Mr. Peter Brabazon:

I thank the committee for inviting us to present at the meeting today. It is a real opportunity for charities and social enterprises like our organisation. In a nutshell, we provide a specialist recruitment service for neurodiverse people to help them to gain employment and importantly, to retain it. I am not going to go through the background details, which Mr. Joyce has kindly provided, but I wish to highlight that unemployment among autistic people is a social issue. Neurodiverse people, and particularly those with autism with whom we mainly work, are eight times more likely to be unemployed in comparison to neurotypical people. They are also three times more likely to be unemployed in comparison to people with other disabilities. There is fundamentally something wrong here, overall. The figures provided by AsIAm are correct, so we are facing a big challenge.

In essence, we provide a service to match unemployed autistic people with employers. The organisation was established in Ireland ten years ago today, so it is very fitting that we are here, in front of the committee, on our anniversary. In that time, we have made a lot of progress, and the demand is high. In the first year of operation, Specialisterne Ireland placed four people in employment. Last year, we placed 85 people. We have registered almost new 200 candidates this year, which represents an increase of 25% on last year, and we currently have over 1,000 candidates. One of the big issues out there is the demand for the service. There are a few subtleties which I will come to later.

Overall, as we see it, some of the issues are around delivering efficiency into the area. Inclusion and partnership are core values of our organisation. We work in partnership with the enablers and also with the other charities to ensure there is less competition in the area. We are a social enterprise and a registered charity. The problem in the charity sector is competition for money and funding. That is a weakness in the structure. I can expand on that later, if required. That is why, as a matter of principle, we do not compete with anyone else. If they are aiming for the same goals as us, that is fine. Hence, we have a number of key partnerships with other charities and groups. In the charity sector, we have a memorandum of understanding with AsIAm, Dyspraxia/DCD Ireland, the Dyslexia Association of Ireland and ASPIRE, which works with those who have Asperger's syndrome. We also have partnerships with the colleges. I know that the committee has discussed autism policy and education. One of the big issues for autistic people, in particular, is that they can get the qualifications in college, but they have never worked in a corner shop or a bar, so they have not developed skills in work etiquette. They come out of college with high level qualifications, including PhDs, but they are unemployed. Typically, the candidates who approach us have level 7 degree qualifications. Previously, neurodiverse students were not getting much support in college, but lately they have been. There has been significant improvement in that area. We have a relationship with approximately 14 colleges and we work very closely with them.

Our two key partners, who are customers for us, are the candidates and the employers. It is a two-part stream. That is why we call ourselves a social enterprise. The organisation has a social objective, but there is an enterprise element. It is business-to-business. Companies are looking for talent, and the talent is there a lot of the time. Of course, sometimes accommodations need to be made for those with these talents, but often no- or low-cost accommodations can solve the problem. My colleague, Ms Murphy, who is our operations officer, can speak to that. She is more involved in operations, along with seven others, who typically have master's degrees in the area, ranging from HR to psychology.

Inclusion is a key value for us. We do not charge our candidates. We want to bring them in and break down the barriers. The candidates will not advocate on behalf of themselves. Often, they are not confident and they may be a little socially inept. Addressing those issues is a big area of work for us. Given that we do not charge our candidates, we are dependent on the State for funding, as many others are. We also support the candidates when they are in work on an ongoing basis. To do so, we charge the companies that gain the talent. After all, the candidates have the talent to do the job. Our model is candidate- and company-centric. We fit the two together when there is a fit.

The high unemployment rate among autistic people is a big social issue. The challenge for us and our partners in this area is managing the demand for services. Anything that can make the process of getting funding more efficient would be helpful. We suggest improving access to the EU. The Wheel is helping with that. It has helped us and other charities to get our first EU funding. However, there is no doubt that there is quite a lot of expense involved for smaller charities like us. We also want to become a source of information for researchers. The NDA, for example, has used us in the past. That is a big thing.

We are all learning, so if more analysis could be done, it would be important for us. For the past 18 months, we have had a person with a PhD in research working for us in this area. It has improved our story as well as how we get funding.

There is a quantitative element - the number of people employed - but there is also a qualitative element, in that what we have done for people we have been working with and who we have been supporting over the past nine years has improved matters.

Basically, we are trying to improve the efficiency of how we operate. More funding could be given to that work. We should recognise partnerships where we have calls for funding. We have been successful in that regard, and I thank Pobal, Rethink Ireland and so on. The partnership process needs to be pushed and supported with funding. Otherwise, too many people will be working in the same area.

The final points are the main ones. There is an excellent wage subsidy support scheme for employers. The problem is that it is administratively difficult. We provide support from an financial expert on how to apply for it. Smaller companies find it difficult to apply. Even larger companies find it difficult. We have submitted our ideas on how the process might be streamlined. The wage subsidy support scheme is an excellent system under which a company can get €12,000 plus per year for each person with autism or another disability it employs. The scheme is good, although it needs some improvements.

As the committee will have heard from every other organisation, the main challenge for us is the lack of multi-annual funding. If a charity gets support from Pobal, it might only be for a year and a half. Our main challenge is retaining the employees we have. They have learned a great deal and have expertise, which we could use. I am glad to have Ms Murphy in attendance. She has been with us for five years and came to us from the US with expertise in this area already. It is difficult to find that expertise and to pay for it properly. Sometimes, we are competing with the public sector, which has better terms and conditions of employment.