Maria Byrne (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I rise to bring awareness to the report on autism published by Senator Carrigy and his committee today. I pay compliments to all the Members who sat on the committee, as well as the people who contributed to the report and its findings. I would like to highlight some of the key findings, which are the asks of the committee. I would like to put pressure on so that the Minister of State, Deputy Madigan, will consider them. I pay compliment to her because she has done so much work in this area, but we have a long way to go.

The main findings are that we should ensure that all autistic children will have access to the summer programme in 2023 and that we ensure that all special schools will provide the summer programme in 2023. I know of many schools that do not currently provide it. We should provide sufficient resources to schools so that they may offer comprehensive programmes to the summer programme in 2023 and liaise with the various stakeholders. I know many of the stakeholders contributed to this report. We should mitigate any constraints to the provision of the summer programme, including in the areas of staffing and pay issues; that we should broaden the potential workforce; and that we should mitigate any difficulties with Garda vetting. These were some issues some schools came up against. They could not get people through the Garda vetting process in time, or the resources were not there to run the programme. There were so many children with disabilities who did not qualify to participate in the programme. I have spoken to parents and I know some parents in my area are very involved in it. The positivity the children received from the programme is to be commended. It should be rolled out for all children with disabilities and for those with autism, in particular.