Ms Ger Kenny:

I would like to comment on Autism Clubs and Education, ACE, and what Ms Lowndes said about the compulsory training for teachers and SNAs. This year, in Dublin 15, there were, I think, 15 children who had come through primary school and there was no secondary school place for them, so some of the schools in Dublin 15 were asked to open an autism class.

Two years ago, I set up ACE, which is Autism Clubs and Education, so I receive funding from Tusla. I source speakers to provide free training workshops to teachers, SNAs and professionals. I will be starting a workshop in October and I will be notifying the schools. We also have a Facebook page. That workshop will go back to the beginning on topics such as what is autism; understanding autism; setting up an autism class; and dealing with anxiety. I would love for it to be compulsory for schools. I do not think that they should have a choice in whether they take the training or not. It should be compulsory, whether they come to ACE and do it through me or they do it through the Middletown Centre for Autism or other organisations that offer workshops. No teacher or SNA should be in a class teaching a child with autism who has never had that experience before.

On another matter, I also have the Parent-Led Autism Network, PLAN, which provides free parent information talks. It is funded by Tusla. They have been going on for the past four years. There are free training workshops to help parents who are struggling with their children. We have both Zoom and in-person information talks. All topics are autism-related. It went nationwide, particularly during Covid-19. A lot more families, with the pressure of homeschooling their child, were reaching out and looking for help.

PLAN has been replicated in Dublin 5, 13 and 17 for the past two years. They have a big launch night coming up in October. PLAN in Balbriggan is very successful as well. For me, the dream would be to have PLAN rolled out nationwide. I would love to see every county in Ireland having one - PLAN Galway, PLAN Limerick, PLAN Kilkenny, and so on. Even if they had the budget for one speaker per month and a Zoom licence, they could reach out to so many more families while they are on waiting lists. Tusla recognises that this is a bit of a stopgap. This is help that people can get through Zoom for some of the talks or meet with other parents and have contact with them. That is a little of what I have been able to set up myself in the last few years and it has been a big success.