Ms Carmel Ryan:

The Deputy used the word "frustration". That is very common for children with autism, especially those who are non-verbal, when trying to express themselves. Then there are the behavioural problems, the stress and the anxiety for them in going around in a world where they are not understood. When Fiacre had a means to communicate, it was one of the big game changers for us because he was not as frustrated and his behavioural issues lessened. That would be a major advantage in schools.

With regard to the other gaps, I suggest making places more autism friendly. I am aware that there is an initiative to make the Dáil more autism friendly. That would be a great target for the Dáil and a great example for the rest of the country. If someone can walk into the Dáil and negotiate his or her way around it without getting stressed it would be a great example to the rest of the country.

Access to speech and language therapy and occupational therapy would also help. I know the committee has discussed that. I was talking with the Chairman earlier about a way of fast-tracking this. It can take four or five years for a speech therapist to be trained, and then so many of them will go abroad anyway. We are waiting for this crop of speech therapists to come through, but they are not going to be available. There is a whole generation of children who have not had access to speech therapy because of a lack of resources and of speech therapists, and then for the past two years with Covid. A drop-in phone call is what it was called - I do not know what a drop-in phone call even is. You either drop in and meet somebody or you phone them. That is no help to parents. Schemes have been set up such as training the parents to do the speech therapy. I am a parent and I am lucky enough that I am a teacher so I could do some work with Fiacre, but a parent is a parent, and a speech therapist is a speech therapist. One cannot make a parent into a speech therapist by giving them a training programme. If there was a way of fast tracking qualifications for either teachers, for students or for people in social care settings, so that they could deliver a speech therapy programmes and occupational therapy programmes, it could get those children off the waiting lists, get them some support, and get those parents some support.