Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 28 February 2023

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Autism

Autism Policy: Discussion (Resumed)

2:20 am

Mr. Odhr?n Allen:

There are so many things I could say. In our opening statement, we spoke about the need for collaborative thinking and new practices - what can we do for these families now. We all acknowledge that we do not have enough therapists to meet the need. There will be a period of three to five years if we do all the right things. Right now, we need to get all the right people, including the professional bodies, around a table in a room, and engage in collaborative thinking about what we can do now with the finite resources we have.

Are there things we could do that may make it a little easier for families? Are there things that might make the system work a little more efficiently? What could we do in the coming few months if we had this amount of money? When we were talking earlier, I used the analogy of increasing the population by X%. If the new hospital is not built, there will be delays in accident and emergency departments. Part of that analogy is that we cannot magic the service out of nowhere.