Mr. Peter Brabazon:

Badging is important and recognition of something. I think what the union is and the unions are doing is excellent. The Deputy might be interested to know this or maybe he will not because now that I think of it, it is in Kerry. We are doing a project with AsIAm in Kerry which is about badging the fact that employers have got training in this area. They have a badge of accreditation. That is one thing that often goes well in the education system generally but also for employers and particularly smaller employers who are working fundamentally with that town and all the infrastructure; the enablers, the Intreo office, the EmployAbility service, the mayor, the local chamber of commerce and some of the employers. We have not talked about the project and will not do so until next year when we are fairly confident that it will go forward. There we are talking about people who might need more accommodation than usual so there are extra charges around it. That is why we need to do this together. That is why I come to the committee today, in a way, in order that there is more co-operation and not just between charities and social enterprises such as ourselves but also with the enablers, that is, the EmployAbility services and Intreos of this world. Intreo, to give it its due, ever-increasingly promoted the wage subsidy support scheme. That was particularly the case in Cork last year where there was an excellent meeting on it and now it is doing it around the country.

In relation to the EU, the policy levels are there. For smaller groups like ourselves, it is about getting over those barriers but The Wheel is working with us and we have got into one as a sub-partner, not a leader. The challenge is some day to be a leader. Actually, we are doing quite well in this country in this area compared with others, as we know from our partners around Europe. While the European Social Fund, ESF, gets slowed down and whatever, it has one advantage, which is that it tends to be multi-annual. We will be looking out for that one.

On badging and the future, we do not currently use badging and maybe we should be and in some way promoting it but what we do is an audit of what accommodations might be needed for candidates. Does a person need to sit away from a window because they do not like the light or near the window because they like to see the garden or maybe they might not like someone sitting behind them? All of that sort of thing has to be considered. These are the low-cost or no-cost accommodations that Ms O'Connor referred to earlier. Ultimately, obviously it all comes down to communications. Change happens slowly. There are a lot of people out there who would even undersell their own autistic kids. We had one thing that happened in Roscommon where the mother was not that confident about her son and the employer asked us to go down and talk to them. What happened there is that he has grown and grown. The guy is now working away there. Incidentally, I say "he" a lot because unfortunately a lot are male but it is not a male thing. It is very much a female thing as well but because of late diagnosis, many people, male and female, go through life without ever getting diagnosed and they need support.