Micheál Carrigy (Fine Gael)
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I apologise to the committee as I had to leave to attend the Chamber for a few minutes. I thank Deputy Buckley for taking the Chair during that time. I thank our witnesses sincerely, both Ms Campbell and Ms Kinross, for the very informative contributions they have given to our committee members today. It is very beneficial to hear what their views are which arise after having had a strategy for ten years, looking back and seeing where they believe they made mistakes, and then changing things. That is where we want to be. We are in the middle of developing our own strategy and we want this strategy to be best practice to make positive changes for those on the autism spectrum. We would welcome the information which Ms Campbell said she would forward to the committee also.

We will be finishing up as a committee in the next number of days and we will be presenting a report to the Government, which we will launch on 14 June. Hopefully, there might be an opportunity - as it is something that I feel strongly about as Chair - to drive to make changes. We have had a very hard-working core group on this committees and want to oversee and ensure that our report and recommendations are carried out. I would love us to have the opportunity to discuss this issue again with our guests as such discussions might be mutually beneficial. Ultimately, it is all about making positive changes for those young children and adults on the autism spectrum. I thank our guests again sincerely.

In accordance with the orders of reference of the committee we will be holding a final meeting at 10 a.m. next Thursday, 1 June. We will then launch our report on Wednesday, 14 June in the audiovisual room at Leinster House at 10.45 a.m., followed by refreshments with those who have been invited to attend at 12 noon.

I sincerely thank everybody who has appeared before this committee. We have had 23 full three to four-hour public sessions over the past 12 months, including another additional 13 private session meetings. As members, we have put a very significant amount of effort into the committee in giving the opportunity to as wide a number of people as possible to meet with us and to talk about their lived experience. These are too numerous to mention but I would refer back to our day in the Seanad Chamber, which was a first for the Houses of the Oireachtas, where autistic people themselves came in and told their stories, together with those of their parents. It was a very emotional day for all of us involved. I again thank Ms Campbell sincerely; she has been the final witness at our public meetings.

Perhaps, just because it is our final session, I will ask the members if they wish to make any final comments.