Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 20 September 2022

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Autism

Autism Policy: Discussion (Resumed)

Ms Karen O'Mahony:

I would, yes. We were lucky that we secured a small amount of funding last year from the HSE for one part of what is a very big entity at Rainbow Club. We have been six years trying to secure even that. We are continuing to fundraise and do everything we can to keep our doors open, but we are not fitting into boxes. The Rainbow Club is such a unique model, we come under different Departments. We have loads of different elements. We have summer provision that we roll out ourselves in Rainbow Club and we are looking at an alternative education piece there. We are constantly told that we do not fit into funding streams, so that is what we need to be able to fall on. There needs to be more collaboration around the funding pools. We have done what we have in seven years on our own. We have not had help. If we had funding, we could do so much more.