Micheál Carrigy (Fine Gael)
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I welcome everyone to the meeting. Apologies have been received from Senator Ardagh.

Before we start our businesses, I will read out some formal notices. All those present in the room are asked to exercise personal responsibility to protect themselves and others from the risk of contracting Covid-19. I remind members of the constitutional requirement that members must be physically present within the confines of the place where Parliament has chosen to sit, namely, Leinster House, in order to participate in public meetings. I will not permit a member to participate where he or she is not adhering to this constitutional requirement. Therefore, any member who attempts to participate from outside the precincts will be asked to leave the meeting.

For the information of our witnesses, I wish to explain some limitations to parliamentary privilege and the practice of the Houses as regards references they may make to other persons in their evidence.

The evidence of witnesses physically present or who give evidence from within the parliamentary precincts is protected, pursuant to the Constitution by absolute privilege. They are reminded of the long-standing parliamentary practice that they should not criticise or make charges against any person or entity by name or in any such way as to make him, her or it identifiable, or otherwise engage in speech that might be regarded as damaging to the good name of the person or entity. Therefore, if their statements are potentially defamatory in respect of an identifiable person or entity, they will be directed to discontinue their remarks. It is imperative that they comply with any such direction.

I propose that the usual speaking arrangements will apply. Witnesses will make their opening statements for five minutes. This will be followed by questions from the members, with five minutes for each member, as per the speaking list that was circulated on Microsoft Teams. Our first session will run from now until 12.30 p.m. We will have a short break and resume for our second session. At the request of the Working Group of Committee Cathaoirligh, we will finish our meeting at 2 p.m.

I take this opportunity to raise a couple of other matters relevant to the committee. In November 2022, the committee published a report on the summer programme for 2023. Earlier in the month, we wrote to all special schools to inquire if they were taking part and, if not, why not. I encourage schools to answer if at all possible. We have a reply rate of roughly 50%. From my understanding and from speaking to the Department, there has been a significant increase in the number of special schools taking part in the programme. There is an increase of 50% on 2022, which is an additional 20 schools. We hoped it would have been higher. We thank those schools for coming forward to make sure we provide that programme, which is much needed by the children.

This committee has also called for the Houses of the Oireachtas to be transformed into an autism-friendly Parliament - one of the first in the world. Training courses have been organised, with our first session for Members just last Thursday. There are a number of online sessions organised, so I encourage everybody within the parliamentary community to attend over the coming months. I particularly thank Roisin Deery for her work on rolling this out in the Houses. I ask all members within their parties or party groupings to make sure all our Oireachtas Members and political staff undertake that training so we will achieve our goal that Leinster House will be an autism-friendly Parliament before the end of 2023.

The first item on the agenda is the minutes from our previous meetings. The question is that we approve the minutes of the meetings on 20 April, 25 April and 27 April 2023. Is that agreed? Agreed.

The second item on our agenda is the resumption of our consideration of autism policy. I welcome our first witness to the session, Mr. Adam Harris, founder and CEO of AsIAm. Our second session will take place at 12.30 p.m., where we will have representatives from the Irish Planning Institute and the National Disability Authority. Before we hear from the witnesses, I propose that we publish their opening statement and submissions on the committee’s website. Is that agreed? Agreed.

The remit of this committee is to consider matters relating to the services and support provided by the State for autistic people. The committee has considered a broad range of important topics concerning autistic children and adults alike. We are now reviewing the evidence provided by numerous people - representative bodies, State bodies, experts in various fields and other stakeholders. We are considering their recommendations to be included in our final report, which we plan to publish in the first week of June of this year.

Mr. Harris, founder and CEO of AsIAm, needs no introduction. We met him on 17 May 2022 – one year ago tomorrow. That was the first session where we met Mr. Harris. He provided us as members with training before we started into our work programme over the past 12 months. He addressed the public meeting on 12 July and our session in the Seanad Chamber on 2 March. He is core to the programme of Leinster House being transformed into autism-friendly building. I thank him for his support with that project, which had its first session here on Thursday. We heard very complimentary remarks from Oireachtas Members afterwards. We look forward to working with him and the team over the next number of months in achieving our goal before the end of 2023.

This is the 48th meeting of this committee and the 19th public session. We are looking forward to hearing Mr. Harris’s views on issues and how they can be addressed in the future. I ask him to highlight issues in any areas we have not covered. I call Mr. Harris to make his opening statement.