Ms Marian Hennessy:

I want to make a comment. I sometimes feel the participants in our programme are very fortunate because they have a lot of support networks within our own organisation but, every week, people with very different disabilities and impairments will contact my office from anywhere around the country. There are a couple of pinch points. One is when people who have attended mainstream schools leave them and go to college. They start courses and it does not work out and they do not fit in. They find that transition piece of going to college, leaving home and trying to find a new support network difficult. Maybe their social skills just do not back them up whereas everybody else has that opportunity. We often find that people are falling out of courses and going back home, and they are not quite sure about their options and choices.

With regard to the other pinch point I am coming across, I had a call yesterday from a third level student who has gone through accountancy exams but is not being supported by the employer to complete exams. There is no support out there for that person to try to move into employment. A lot more needs to be done in this area to give some form of transition support. As I said, parents whose children have gone through the mainstream system are coming back to ask if there is any possibility they can access Ability@Work or Cope Foundation services. That is sad because people should be able to get the same services in the mainstream as what we offer.