Nem Kearns:

I thank the committee for inviting us to appear. I am joined by my colleague, Aoife Sheridan, and we are representing Neuro Pride Ireland. It is a national cross-neurodivergency disabled persons' organisation. We operate on an entirely volunteer-led and unfunded basis. Among the activities or services we provide are regular social events and educational and training opportunities. We create educational material for neurodivergent people, their families and professionals. We also undertake a large amount of advocacy, as well as holding an annual festival which runs up to Neuro Pride Day, marked on 8 August each year.

We are delighted to hear that the committee will be receiving training from AsIAm. That is a positive step that we applaud. It is essential that training on autistic experiences comes from and is led by autistic people. There are some incredible and expert autistic-led trainers available, such as Thriving Autistic, as well as AUsome Autism Training, which is based in Cork, that offer accredited training to teacher, speech and language therapists and other professionals. There are services out there. Unfortunately, I have undergone and seen in use autism training that relies on outdated and debunked misconceptions. Such training perpetuates the misconceptions, misinformation and some of the stigma that greatly affects the lives of autistic people. It is good to see that there is a growing acknowledgement of the role autistic people and our representative organisations have in communicating our needs and experiences.

There are a number of areas I would particularly like to highlight as cross-cutting and urgent across the life cycle of autistic people. One of these is actually a matter that was highlighted by the Joint Committee on Disability Matters in its recently released report on aligning disability services with the UNCRPD, which needs to be the gold standard for all interventions and supports. The report highlighted that there are significant human rights concerns about the use of behavioural interventions practices, which was widespread across our educational therapeutic services. There is mounting evidence that these practices fail to uphold disabled children's and adult's rights and cause significant long-term harm. Children who are exposed to these practices are at high risk of death by suicide and are up to 86% more likely to develop complex post-traumatic stress disorder, CPTSD, than those who were not. When we speak of the high rates of anxiety, depression and suicidality among disabled people, which contributes to the suicide rate of between nine and 11 times higher than the general population, we fail to acknowledge and act on the causes of this reality. We need to hold rigorous standards for the therapies to which we expose autistic children and adults. We need to combat the prejudice and exclusion autistic people face. It is unacceptable that CAMHS around the country refuse to support children in crisis on the basis of them having an autism diagnosis.

We need to do better. We need to listen to the children's rights committee and urgently ban the use of restraints and seclusion, which are overwhelmingly used against neurodiversity children, particularly those from minority ethnic backgrounds. We are concerned that an organisation with hundreds of child abuse charges outstanding against it has been granted permission to run a special school for autistic students. Approximately 80% of autistic girls are subjected to sexual abuse before the age of 12. We need much greater regulation and oversight of people and organisations providing services to autistic and all disabled children.

We need instead to invest in neuro-affirmative supports that autistic people need and want, particularly supports fundamental to autonomy and dignity such as access to augmentative and alternative communication, AAC. We need to centre the views of non-speaking autistics themselves, ensure autistic people are fully included in the institutionalisation strategies, and prioritise the disabled person's organisations, DPOs, in all decision-making processes as an essential requirement to implementing the CRPD.

Ireland has the highest rate of unemployment and one of the highest rates of consistent poverty for disabled people in Europe. Autistic people are overrepresented in homelessness and prison populations. Among the factors that cause this - my colleague Ms Sheridan will speak more on the employment piece - is the means-testing of disability payments and supports, which keeps disabled and autistic people in lifelong dependency. It restricts our rights to independent living and equal social and political participation.

Financial dependency is also the single greatest contributing factor to the experience of abuse. Autistic people are subjected to horrific levels of violence and abuse. Nine in ten autistic women have survived sexual violence and more than 90% of autistic people have been subjected to repeated interpersonal violence. Despite this, the majority of refuges and abuse support and advice services are not fully accessible and funding has not been provided for them to receive training necessary to allow their staff and services to support autistic people and make their services accessible.

Autistic people also experience other forms of marginalisation and exploitation and are part of all the marginalised communities. Ms Sheridan will also speak about some of the aspects of how racial and gender inequality impact autistic people and the experiences of the approximately 70% of autistic people who are also members of the LGBTQ+ community, particularly in regard to assessment and accessing services, education and employment. I thank the committee.