Micheál Carrigy (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the students and I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, to the Chamber to take this Commencement matter about setting up one-stop shops in Ireland to provide for all those on the autism spectrum.

One may ask what one-stop shops are. They are basically community-based supports for young children and adults on the autism spectrum. They were first introduced in Scotland as part of its autism strategy. The services provide barrier-free supports to individuals and families created by autistic persons and are responsive to the needs in each individual locality. Some of the services and supports they provide are advice and information services, drop-in sessions, one-to-one appointments, peer support groups, support for transitions, social activities, support and advice to access services within the community, parent groups, information and advice for professionals and supports developed in partnership with other local organisations and public services.

It is a community-based model that will be collocated with existing support services and staffed by a range of non-clinical professionals providing complementary, rather than competing, services to the CDNTs and disability services, which is a key point. It also provides important opportunities for promoting autistic self-advocacy and providing employment within the community.

A number of members of the joint committee, of which I was Chair, visited Scotland in October. We met with the Scottish health minister, department of health officials and a significant number of autism advocates who work with the Scottish health department developing legislation. One of the key points we brought back from Scotland was the success of the model as it is there. We strongly believe it needs to be implemented here.

To give background, AsIAm, a significant organisation supporting those on the autistic spectrum, recently produced its Same Chance report. Less than one third of those represented in the report, in which 1,603 took part, reported receiving support from their local CDNT. Of those not receiving supports, the vast majority, some 68%, were on waiting lists, whereas others were simply outside of the system. That cannot continue. Over a quarter, some 26%, of those on the waiting lists were reported to be expecting to wait more than four years to access the services they need. More than 15,000 are waiting for first-time assessments for occupational therapy, 15,000 are waiting for speech and language assessments, more than 8,000 are waiting for further SLT therapy and 16,000 are waiting for psychology treatment. These are significant challenges. The waiting lists for assessments remain extensive and there is a recruitment crisis within disability services.

While there is an urgent need to reduce waiting times and improve pathways to the multidisciplinary supports for autistic children and adults, there is an important opportunity to build on the complementary – “complementary” is a key word – supports within the community to provide timely support to families in the current context.

I know the Minister of State read our report and was very supportive of the committee. This is one point that has come up from a number of organisations we met with that gave testimony to the committee and was key to our report. The NDA was very supportive of the one-stop shop. Indeed, Áine Lawlor of the IASLT spoke to the committee and highlighted the positivity of a one-stop shop, highlighting the fact that there were pockets of services that work very well and we have excellent skills and clinicians who can provide support but what about the families and the people involved?What about the other supports for them? That is a significant challenge for us but this can be the answer. Will the Government support the piloting of a model of a one-stop shop which has been successful in our neighbouring country with a similar sized population? Scotland had an autism innovation strategy from 2011 to 2021. They have reviewed it and are moving forward but this is one thing that has proven successful. It can be successful in this country. I want the Government to introduce a pilot and recognise the opportunities it will provide, including in the context of the HSE children's disability grant round and the forthcoming autism innovation strategy on which I know the Minister is working and which we are waiting to see shortly.