Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

A range of services and supports are available to support autistic individuals and their families. These fall within the remit of multiple Departments such as the Department of Health, the Department of Education and my own Department in the context of specialist community-based disability services and the access and inclusion model. Disability services are provided throughout the country to people with disabilities, including those with autism. These services include residential, day and respite services, alternative respite, home support and personal assistant services, children’s services, and multidisciplinary supports for children and adults.

The HSE is working to bring about improvements for autistic people accessing services via the autism service improvement programme. Funding has also been provided under budget 2023 to address waiting lists for clinical assessments identified through the assessment of needs process. However, I am conscious there are gaps in existing supports and services that need to be addressed. I am committed to advancing national action on autism in line with the commitments in the programme for Government.

To this end, the Department will continue to drive progress under key policy initiatives, such as the disability capacity review, the progressing disability services roadmap, the development of an ambitious successor strategy to the national disability inclusion strategy, through the development of bespoke measures where appropriate, and through initiatives such as the autism innovation strategy. The aim of this strategy is to identify bespoke challenges and barriers faced by autistic people and to deliver solutions in an holistic and whole-of-government manner.

The Department is engaged in bilateral negotiations throughout Government to discuss the findings of an initial public consultation that was convened last year and to agree actions for the strategy. A further public consultation will be convened before the end of 2023 prior to the finalisation of the strategy. The strategy will complement mainstream measures and seek to deliver concrete actions over a 12- to 18-month delivery timeline. It is my firm intention that the strategy will provide the foundations for a more autism-inclusive society and further work to come.

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