Micheál Carrigy (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)

Coming from a GAA background myself, I have seen a number of things. I know Athlone GAA was one of the first in the midlands in this regard. Another club in my home county has started to roll out one-to-one supports and training for kids with additional needs. That is fantastic and the way we need to go. It is about society changing and understanding. We worked on a project here in Leinster House. As a committee, one of the first things we did was to challenge the Houses of the Oireachtas on an understanding programme and turning Leinster House into an autism-friendly Parliament, which we did very successfully. The EDI team did a fantastic job here along with the other services. We have the highest autism-friendly parliament standards in the world for families and for schools that come in to visit. We also did an awareness project for all staff members and political staff. More than 1,000 people did autism awareness training and we are looking at expanding that again.

Ultimately, when people understand things, it is easier to get things changed or done. It is important that every organisation, be it the HSE or Government Departments, does that. We need to do it in all those organisations.