Micheál Carrigy (Fine Gael)
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I thank Dr. Doherty. On the subject of training, I might make the witnesses aware that as a committee we have been pushing, and the Houses of the Oireachtas have agreed that Leinster House as a complex will be an autism-friendly government complex. As part of that, training is going to be rolled out to all 1,500 political and non-political staff across the campus. It is important that we, as a seat of Government here, lead from the top, and we need to roll it out that accessibility across all public buildings. However, as was mentioned earlier on, the public sector needs to meet the targets set with regard to employing people with various disabilities. How can we expect employers in the private sector to do it if we can not meet our targets in the public sector?

With regard to sensory rooms and schools, one school in my local area set up a class in September 2022 at quite short notice, but did it over the summer holidays, and got it in place. I was there approximately five weeks ago, and they now have a sensory room in the school as well, with a card for other students. It is available so when the student is in a mainstream class, it is beside them in the centre of the school, and for other students who might need that sensory stimulus, it is there as well. That is forward thinking, and the way to go, and it is important to give them a shout out. It is Moyne Community School in Longford, and it is great that they were thinking and had the foresight to go and do it themselves. They did it at their own cost - it was not funded - and they put it in place. That is where we need to change and educate society and everyone to fully accept and embrace, and to make sure we have all of these facilities in place.

I got a lot of media attention at the time, but I think the word "disorder" - and I mentioned the word "unit" already - gives a wrong impression of what autism is, that it is a disorder. I got a lot of social media abuse for making that point at an earlier stage. But it is not. The term gives a wrong perception of what it is. Our language, understanding and knowledge needs to change.

We mentioned adults on the autism spectrum. Last Thursday in the Seanad chamber, we had a number of self-advocates speaking about their experiences. They had a guidance document with regard to the justice system, and this was an issue raised at the committee by a couple of people with regard to how they found it difficult to engage with the justice system. Since the NDA's guidance document was issued, has the justice system made any changes that were put forward? Not by what we heard last week, but I would like to hear Dr. Tamming's view.