Ms Jean Mullan:

I would like to follow up on the Senator's point about rural transport. As I am sure everyone knows, this is a huge problem for all rural areas in Ireland. Even if we get to a place where services are lined up, and have support systems ready to go, if people cannot get there, then nothing works. We cannot have services located in every little community all over Ireland so it does come down to transport, but we need to consider various options. The Senator mentioned the Irish Rural Link transport system. The system is being examined and it definitely needs to be extended.

Bus Éireann and a private company provide services in my area but none of the buses are accessible for wheelchair users, which is a major issue. The transport provided must be accessible to transport people from A to B. For the people who live in my area, availing of a lot of their services entails anything between a 90-mile and 100-mile round trip, and that takes a massive chunk out of a person's day. As Ms Kearns has pointed out, people with autism generally have a range of things, thus necessitating many appointments in any given week or month, which is a lot of travelling time. The other option that should be examined is bringing professionals to the clients. It would make much more sense for the psychologist, occupational therapist or speech therapist to go to people. That would be a far more efficient use of time and it would be much less stressful for families.

Getting to and from schools is an issue that I mentioned in my opening statement. I know of a number of families whose children have transitioned into second level in the community school but no arrangements have been made to transport them there. Again, parents are stuck with having to transport their children to and from school, which means that the parents are excluded from the employment market, taking up further education options, etc. That is a major issue. Transport and escort services and so on should automatically be put in place.