Ms Derval McDonagh:

On the rapid prompting method, Inclusion Ireland ran a conference in October looking at alternative and augmentative communication for people with intellectual disabilities and disabled people in general. It is a huge issue. Access to a functioning communication method is the way people access all their other rights, including education, and the world, and how they have a good life. We are wholeheartedly behind developing better pathways for children and adults to access the right to a communication method.

There seems to be anecdotal evidence that some children and families find RPM, as a methodology, incredibly useful. Inclusion Ireland does not tend to recommend a particular approach. We are more focused on the investment in access to all methodologies around alternative and augmentative communication. As long as it is human-rights based, it meets the child and adult where they are at, it serves their needs and purposes, and is directed by them, we are in support of that approach. However, we do not tend to recommend a particular methodology, especially when there is not yet a full evidence base behind it, although that might change over time. We are more interested in the systemic issues facing people at present who need a system to communicate and do not have access to it.

In our report based on our conference last October, we raised a number of issues, to go back to the points members made, around the integration piece. We need better integration across health and education. There needs to be better resources for access to AAC equipment in schools and homes. We suggested having banks and libraries of available equipment for children. There are therapists with know-how who can implement this immediately but, sometimes, there is no bank of equipment where they can readily trial things. Some of these pieces of equipment are incredibly expensive. Families cannot afford to buy one just to try it. There needs to be an investment in that kind of trialling and testing.

Our attitudes around AAC and people who are non-speaking needs to dramatically move on. Somebody pointed out that sometimes non-speaking seems to suggest non-thinking or non-communicating. We all know that is absolutely not true. We need to take our obligations seriously in giving people proper, robust access to AAC. We shared our AAC report with the committee previously, which has some key recommendations that might be useful for it to take on board. That is one element.