Pauline Tully (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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I thank the witnesses for their submissions. My first question is for the technological university. I read the opening statement about how it assesses people's needs and it has many reasonable accommodations. I thought this was wonderful and then I came to the "but" and the challenges. I am also a member of the disability committee. We have met various further and higher education institutions. There is much better awareness about autism and disability and trying to put in the supports but there is still a long way to go. We should have a universal design in higher education. People should not have to declare they are autistic because the supports should be there. Are we still a long way off this? It has been said there is not sufficient funding and there are also issues in the way it is allocated and the fact it is competitive and the application is complex. All of these issues could and should be easily dealt with. Are we a long way from universal design?