Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chairman of the committee, Senator Carrigy, for the report and my colleague Deputy Buckley for sponsoring it. I thank all the members of the committee for the work they have done. In particular, I thank them for the room they have made for me. From time to time, I might have overstepped the line regarding the speaking time I took. I will try not to do that today.

The point of having an autism committee is similar to the one mentioned by Deputy Canney, that is, to ensure we create a space for autistic people that allows for genuine equality and acceptance. We all know of the autism services that are not being provided. Many have spoken about the added cost to parents of autistic children, namely €28,000 per year.

We are talking about expanding summer provision with speech and language therapists, psychologists and occupational therapists. We realise these resources are not where we need them. Therefore, a huge body of work needs to be done. There have been major failings across the board. The expansion of summer provision, while beneficial to some, obviously created a difficulty. In fairness, decent work is being done by the committee in setting out straightforward recommendations. I do not believe there is anyone in this room or beyond who could keep a straight face while arguing against them.

I welcome some of what the Minister of State said about the review.

We just need to make sure the review meets these recommendations and that this service is provided to the children who most need it and who are most in danger of regression. That should be their absolute right within a school setting. We will have to make sure that all of the engagement happens and that we deal with pay and conditions, any anomalies that are created and all the stakeholders. I refer to the schools, the Department and right down to the unions and every individual person. We need to ensure that is done and dusted.

I will be quite honest. My experience of summer provision has been really good. My son, Turlough, who is autistic, got home-based provision for a number of years with two really good teachers. He was then able to get provision in a school setting in St. Joseph's National School. That is even better. It is really beneficial, although it is not without difficulties. From time to time, kids like our Turlough can create huge logistical issues. I had to attend to a constituency issue this morning. I usually miss these things but it became my responsibility to ensure Turlough got to school. I cannot say I got him to school on time. I got him there and I was very frustrated at the end of it. I just about made my first engagement but that might say more about me than it does about Turlough. We all get the difficulties involved but summer provision is really positive and really necessary. We need to make sure it is delivered in the correct setting to those who most need it. We may have to expand the pool of people who can deliver this programme, perhaps to those studying occupational therapy, those who will work in childcare and those studying speech and language therapy. I would like to think a considerable number of people will go through such training in the near future. That needs to happen.

I hope the Minister of State will answer the questions. I will not go through the recommendations again, which are straightforward. The report is a really decent piece of work. I would like to think that the review and the engagement with stakeholders will come up with something very similar, that these things will almost merge and that we can deliver this service, which is required. If Turlough were here now, he would be able to give a much better endorsement than I have. He would probably be far more eloquent as well.

Given that we are under a time constraint, I will move on. I assume the Cathaoirleach Gníomhach will have no difficulty with this, and I hope the Minister of State will not either, but I might deviate slightly. Unfortunately, because of my constituency engagements, Deputies Tully and Ó Laoghaire were required to step into the breach with the Minister of State for me today. We were dealing with the rapid prompting method, RPM, used with autistic people who are non-verbal. The Minister of State met with Fiacre Ryan and his mam, Carmel. I know that she will have been highly impressed, just as I was, with what RPM has done for Fiacre and his family. There is an ask with regard to a pilot scheme and research so that we could look at RPM and any other assistive technologies necessary to facilitate autistic people, particularly those who are non-verbal, for whom many of us would have thought there was unfortunately no help available. We have seen huge strides made in freeing people from what must have been a trap for many over many years. I welcome what the Minister of State said about it not being prohibited for any school to engage in this but we have to do some work on it. I would appreciate it if she would give an answer to that, along with the answers relating to this piece of work.

I hope that these recommendations and the conclusions of the Minister of State's review will be the same and that we can deliver the summer provision that a number of our citizens require.

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