Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank everybody for coming in and contributing. As I sat listening, I was learning, which is the important thing. To go back to the very start, the motivation for the Bill, which was first brought to the Dáil in 2017, was to put in place rights for people with autism. The Bill is not perfect by any means. When we reintroduced the Bill, we set out a table of amendments, which we discussed with AsIAm and the Irish Society for Autism. It is still not perfect. More is to be done with the Bill. As I said earlier, the important thing is that we do not walk away from the Bill and that we produce a Bill out of this process that will be fit for purpose and takes into account what Mx Kearns said about the different Acts in the meantime and all that has happened so that it is fit for purpose and does not contradict something else.

I have had a lot of contact in the past two or three days from people who found out a discussion was going to happen today. They were concerned that the 30% of children with autism who have severe implications not be forgotten in the legislation. I know they will not be forgotten but it shows the depth of interest to make sure something is put in place that will actually help people. I said earlier in the first session and I say again that we have an opportunity within the committee. I will work with the committee and everybody else to make sure what we do is right and that we can be proud of it. I do not want to the Bill get to a stage where it falls this time next year, for the second time. That is why it is important. I welcome the opportunity to be here today. I thank Ms Anita Gibbons, the clerk, and all her staff and the Chair for her forbearance in making sure that things happen and that everyone got a say today. It has been three hours of fulfilment, for me. I hope that when we look back in a few months, we will say that we achieved something. I am available at any time to come in and talk. I am not the expert - neither is the Regional Group - but as Mr. Harris said earlier, all parties agree with supporting things. We felt that if we brought this in, everybody would support it. I take some solace from the fact that the officials who were at the committee earlier may not be as happy to support it; I think we might be doing something right in that case. We will work together on it and, I hope, get something that everybody will be proud of and the entire country will see as a model by which other things may be done to make sure that we have a rights-based society, rather than just a charity-based society.