Ms Gillian Kearns:

On the current climate and looking forward, I am also a co-founder of Neuro-Pride Ireland, which is a cross-neurodivergence disabled person's organisation, so I will put that hat on for a minute. Looking forward in the neurodivergent community is quite scary geopolitically for us right now. All the advances in education and awareness and all the work we have been doing on advocacy for years are being undermined by people in positions of authority saying quite ill-informed things about neurodivergent people. That has an impact on us and on the supports we receive. It has a psychological impact so we are seeing more and more people come to us who are struggling with their mental health because of this geopolitical climate. For us, that is quite worrying. It is quite worrying we are being scapegoated and it needs to be addressed. The only way it can be addressed is by including our voices in policies and strategies and listening to us about the reality of our lived situations. I apologise for jumping over to that side of things, but it needed to be said.