Ms Debbie Carr:

One solution could be media presence, such as advertisements. We have the blind dogs. It is very much there, it is open. We need more media presence on autism dogs. I have had instances where I have been in a supermarket in Dundrum with the dog attached to my child and people come right up to him in the middle of the two of us and start calling the dog and rubbing the dog. You cannot help dumb either, but if there was more media presence, it could help. Aidan is independent with Gandhi. It is great because I do not have to go to a lot of places he goes now. He was refused twice by Dublin Bus in the last few weeks. I did not contact Ms Carr because I knew I would be meeting her today but I sent an email to Dublin Bus explaining the situation. It is discrimination - Ms Carr backed me up. She gave me the laws that I can quote to anybody on discrimination if they do that. The good thing about Aidan being refused from the bus was that he was with the dog, so that automatically kept him calm. Unfortunately, it was lashing rain and he had to walk home. He has dyspraxia and comorbidities - he has everything.

It was a long walk for someone with dyspraxia. When he got home he was angry but not to the level I would have expected if he did not have Gandhi. Before we had Gandhi, we had to lock the knife presses so that Aidan could not get to them because of suicidal tendencies and the fear that he might hurt us. That is something everyone is scared to say. Autistic people physically hurt their families. It still happens but not to as great a degree. More help around that is needed for families. I have reached out and asked people to help us and I feel like they will help me when I am dead. That is great.

I would love to see more advertising explaining what this dog does and asking people to respect this dog when it is wearing a jacket in the same way as they would respect a dog for the blind. Even walking down the street, I feel that people are constantly saying "Look at the dog", and telling their children to go and pet the dog. They should not touch the dog. It causes me anxiety because I am thinking constantly "Please do not touch the dog". That is written on the jacket, which is great, but it needs to be advertised more.