Ms Nuala Geraghty:

I thank the Chair and committee members for the opportunity to address them today. We are here to ask for their support in having autism assistance dogs properly recognised as a vital and necessary support for people with autism and to recommend that our work in training these dogs be funded along the same lines as guide dogs for the blind. We receive no funding from the State. We need €500,000 per year to meet the real needs of children with autism and their families and to make a vital difference in their lives.

I am the CEO of AADI. Since 2010, we have placed 58 assistance dogs and 39 companion dogs with children with autism. This was achieved with a small team of staff and an army of volunteers. As I said, we receive no State funding. Hundreds of families reach out to us, but, with our current resources, we can only train 25 to 30 dogs per year. We need to be able to train at least 100 dogs per year in order to ensure that every child with autism who needs an assistance dog gets one.

This year we placed 19 dogs with families. It has been our most successful year to date. Because of the level of demand, we began to operate a waiting list. We had to close it in 2014 because it was oversubscribed. For seven years, families could not apply for dogs. After much work, we reopened the waiting list in 2021 and 30 dogs were allocated in under two minutes. However, 199 families who had applied did not get dogs. We need funding of €500,000 per year if we are to meet the need that exists. We are asking for €12,000 per dog we place. This will cover half the costs of training and aftercare provided by AADI. We are fundraising the rest. We urgently need the same recognition as guide dogs for the blind. I ask committee members to recommend to the Government that our dogs and their contribution are recognised as equal to and as important as guide dogs for the blind and the work they do.

The Minister of State at the Department of Health, Deputy Anne Rabbitte, visited our training centre last year. We have received a letter of support from Bernard O’Regan, head of operations of the HSE's disability services. An Taoiseach Micheál Martin met Cara Darmody and her father Mark, who will also appear before the committee, and he agreed that autism assistance dogs should be funded. We are still not part of the conversation of providing autism assistance dogs and support for children with autism.

Before I finish, I want to share a call we took recently from a mother who believes a dog would benefit her child but the thought of not being one of the lucky 30 families allocated a place on the list was too much for her. She will not put herself through the process only to be let down again by another support or service she cannot access. This was a new low for the team. We could not even offer her hope that one day her child would benefit from the support of an assistance dog as Aidan Carr did. Aidan’s mother, Debbie, will now tell the committee how her family's life has been changed thanks to the support of their assistance dog, Ghandi.