Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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I thank all the witnesses for coming before the committee. This is a vital part of putting the jigsaw for autistic people together. We have all seen the real wins for society, for the autistic person, and for their wider family if they can make the moves. We have all talked about the cliff edge that relates to adult services in particular. We all know the nightmare it is at the minute trying to get speech and language therapy, SLT, psychology service or whatever services that are required. We all know we are not starting from the best place. I would not start from here if I were you. Anyway, we are where we are and this is an absolutely vital part of the conversation. I add my voice to what has been said earlier. When you are talking about reasonable accommodation and the passport system, that is just putting best practice in play. We need to do absolutely everything from the point of view of putting that in operation. I used the example of my own son and I have seen myself how the very small things matter. In dealing with the school he is in at present, I am aware that very small changes can allow for a really good day whereas when those mitigations are not put in play, all hell breaks loose and you are dealing with a worse-case scenario for all involved. That is what we are trying to avoid. Given the AsIAm figures of one in 65 of the population being autistic - and the numbers are obviously greater in younger groups - that is not something that is changing in the near future so we need to ensure, even from a societal and an economic point of view, that we are not cutting off those people. That goes without saying.

An issue brought to me during the week concerned the workplace equipment adaptation grant. Are Mr. Brabazon or Ms Murphy aware of this grant? It was brought to my attention because the person him or herself or the employer must put in for this funding for assistive technologies but the point made to me was that in some cases, it should be possible for the sponsoring body or the family to do it so it could be done at an earlier stage and lined up. It probably involves a very small change in relation to social protection but as the witnesses operate in the field, I will throw that to them first.