Marc Ó Cathasaigh (Waterford, Green Party)
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I thank the witnesses for their submissions today and the longer submission we received from TUS. The first point made by Dr. Matthews was that Governments change. That is the central argument around legislation. Legislation outlasts any individual Government. It is within the gift of any Government to change legislation.

The idea of having a legal framework for data gathering is pivotal. The HSE appeared before the committee and I questioned its representatives about its modelling for assessments of need based on incidence rate. You should be able to pick an incidence rate and model it through a population and from that, come back with a figure whereby you can say we will need a particular number of assessments of need. I was not particularly enamoured of the answer I received to that question.

There is certainly increasing awareness of autism among the general population. As a member of this committee, I have met many adults who in later life realised they were autistic. There is a real issue around the fact that there is no public pathway to get an assessment as an adult. As we all know, private assessments are expensive and are like hen's teeth in any case. I have a devil's advocate question. Towards the end of his submission, Dr. Matthews spoke about the need for autism-specific legislation and said he did not believe that the argument that it is covered under disability legislation holds water.

I am referring to a single paragraph in the submission. I just want to give the representatives an opportunity to expand on it slightly. I might direct some questions to the representatives from TUS afterwards.