Marc Ó Cathasaigh (Waterford, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I acknowledge the work that Dublin City University, DCU, has been doing in this space. Representatives from DCU also made a presentation to the joint committee. It is exciting to see the idea and principle of universal design being applied to universities and to housing and such matters. It acknowledges that these specific interventions might be of particular use to autistic people and help them in the context of access. However, many of these interventions are going help everyone in the student body, not just those who are autistic, and make our campuses more inclusive places. I will be very interested to see what the evaluation shows. It is well worth putting the money in. However, it is important that we monitor the level of success and how effective what is being done is from a student point of view and ensure that a structure is in place for information sharing so that best practice can be shared. We should not have to reinvent the wheel on each campus. That evaluation system is going to be important in ensuring that we share the experience and best practice.

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