Micheál Carrigy (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chair for giving me the opportunity to speak. I am not a member of the committee but I was contacted by a number of schools regarding the organisations that are present today. I have been the chairperson of the Joint Committee on Autism for the past 15 months. We will launch our report tomorrow morning. I heard people chatting at this committee and I watched a piece earlier on screen.

The same words and issues are coming up that are basically parallel: early intervention, lack of professionals and assessments.

A couple of things came up from our discussions and one was quite stark. In respect of the PSI and with regard to the setting up of the CDNTs, no discussion took place with the HSE. We are not going to deal with any issues we have if we do not sit down, work and discuss with professionals in the organisations that are dealing with it on the ground. The HSE needs to wake up to that fact, to be quite honest.

Awareness was spoken about and that is similar with regard to autism and those on the autism spectrum. That is a job for us working in Leinster House and in government. We are working on it here in respect of an awareness campaign and an acceptance campaign. We need to do that. That needs to be led by the Government nationally across a number of areas in disability. It has been said here that many people are nearly afraid to go to their doctor in case they get a diagnosis. We need to inform society and society needs to accept that there are people in society who need these supports and there should be no stigma attached to it, whether it is ADHD or autism. I note that is something that will be quite strong tomorrow in what we are issuing.

There was a recent announcement from the Minister with regard to State counselling services. There are nine trial counties in the country. Ultimately, that will be rolled out, I would imagine, across the country. There is a lack of professionals as it is. What is the short-term proposal to support people? The reality is we do not have enough professionals qualifying through our third level institutions to deal with the waiting lists that we have already. We will now be giving extra supports within our primary schools. It is initially nine counties but that will be rolled out. Are there any solutions for the next four to five years, until those extra professionals come out of our third level system and into the public or even the private system, to give supports? What proposals would the witnesses be putting in place so that we have enough professionals to help those kids and young adults with ADHD?