Mr. Adam Harris:

Unfortunately, we would have to say we have seen a marked deterioration in recent years. To add a personal anecdote to that, when I look back through my own file to when I was a child, I can see the correspondence going back and forth between my family and the services. There was always a reality that one had to fight, whether that was in the context of education or healthcare, but there was a sense in the past that the fight was perhaps worth it because one could get something at the end of it. What we have certainly seen, even in recent years, with what should be the simple task of accessing assessment is that the process has got increasingly more challenging. It was telling that in our Same Chance report this year, more than half of those who answered the survey had accessed their diagnosis privately. That just shows the complete collapse of the public system. It shows all that the CDNTs, the progressing disability services policy and some of the unfortunate strategies taken to undermine the assessment of need process have done is aggravate the situation further.

It is important to recognise that not only have we seen a deterioration and experienced the impact of the crash, but that we have seen a huge shift in demographics. We certainly have not kept up with that. I mentioned the figure of 3.38% of schoolgoing children. The NCSE published a report in, I think, 2017 and at that time it spoke about one in 65 children in school. I remember starting the work and the number everyone used to point at, only a decade ago, was 1%. Of course, there has not been an increase in autistic people but in an awareness of autism that has lead to more people accessing assessment and also a broader understanding of the different experiences and presentations of autism within our community, especially in the context of women. As a result, the services have not kept up with that development.

We think the scorecard thing is really important. There are very concrete recommendations within the report of the Oireachtas joint committee that could be implemented tomorrow, for example, the idea there should be mandatory training within the education and healthcare systems. What we have very often seen - and in the area of the autism Bill this is the key example - is the Oireachtas has repeatedly said it supports this and we have measurable public support for it, yet we have had a situation where civil servants have blocked it. It is really important that blocking is not allowed take place and that is where we think the scorecard and legislation are critical.