Mr. R?n?n Hession:

On that, we do fund a €20,000 grant for employers for their other staff. We survey employers and we have an employer engagement team. There is an issue with awareness. Also, I think that sometimes in recruitment areas there can be a lot of churn in staff, so you work with somebody who knows what the Department does, that changes and you are back to square one. As for the AsIAm report on the workplace, it is interesting that some of this stuff is difficult but there also seems to be areas where I think there is potential - and they are cultural - as to how autistic people understand how they are perceived. In other words, people will not ask for reasonable accommodations because if they say in the job interview that they are concerned, the employer might think, "This is a tight-run thing and they are both very good but the non-autistic person might be less hassle." That is what people with autism report back. Likewise, there is a tentativeness that comes from employers, who say, "We want to do the right thing but we are just not always 100% sure what the right thing is." That has a chilling effect. The AsIAm report is very good at putting that out there. Sometimes the financial supports are there and they are quite significant, and the subsidies are there and they are quite significant. I do not want to talk only about minimum-wage jobs because I have been at so many disability seminars where people have said the main constraint is other people's low expectations. We should therefore not talk only about low-level or entry-level jobs. You can get subsidies of over €9 under the wage subsidy scheme, and we have a minimum wage of €11. The minimum subsidy is €6.30, which is significant. The reasonable accommodation is somewhat supported and will be better supported if we can get the review. The cultural piece and the workplace piece are a bit trickier. Having more open conversations and demystifying this is part of it, and the autism community has made huge positive steps there. There has also been engagement with employers. That report by AsIAm was a collaboration with employers.