Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 4 October 2022

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Autism

Autism Policy in Education: Discussion (Resumed)

Ms Caroline Quinn:

That is perhaps a question for another day but I do not believe that the system can be divorced from it either. If one was to talk to families, parents and their children, they know that the safety net is probably in the building, or with the people they know, but there has been such a lack of clarity for so many years in this whole area that that is what is causing the problem. We have only addressed some of them today.

Again, I reiterate that we would have been a great deal better prepared for today had we had a different focus. There is a great deal of work to do but it has to be done within a framework where everybody is clear about what is expected and that the resourcing is then put in place in a timely manner.