Marc Ó Cathasaigh (Waterford, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for her opening statement. I want to sound a note of frustration from the off. This committee has been time-bound and we have been very conscious of trying to get through a substantial amount of work in a short space of time. I just want to note a frustration with the timeline. The announcement the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, made on the autism innovation strategy was in 2021. We went to public consultation on that in April 2022, and then we got a report analysing feedback in April 2023. We have been dealing with families who have lost two years while we have got to a point where we are reporting and analysing feedback. It feels frustratingly slow to a member of this committee.

I have a number of specific questions I want to get into. First, I would like a little clarity about the language on phase 1 of the piloting of the autism assessment and intervention protocol. Is the pilot complete or not complete?