Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 13 December 2022

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Autism

Autism Policy and Employment: Discussion

Mr. Peter Brabazon:

We registered 155 people last year and 85 got employment. However, it must be remembered that some of those 85 came from previous years as we had been working with them for a long time. We have been operating for ten years today and, over that time, we have not quite reached 50% but a number of people we have worked with who did not get employment have gone back into education having made their own decision based on our advice. Education often enables people to go on to the next stages of employment. It is a fairly successful model and we are quite pleased with it. The driver for it is that I personally have an autistic son, who is now 29. That is how I got involved. I was involved with another charity but asked myself what we were going to do after he left school. My guy was lucky enough to go to college and eventually passed a degree over six years. All of these people are different. I hope that answers the Deputy's question.