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

At the outset, I acknowledge the interest of Members of this House in issues surrounding autism. In particular, I thank Senator Carrigy for raising the important issue of the provision of information and services for autistic people. As Minister of State with responsibility for disability, I have consistently sought to advance a national action on autism to address the bespoke challenges that autistic people face today in Ireland. These challenges occur at all stages and in all facets of life, from healthcare, education and employment, among other areas. Some of these challenges relate to access to services as the Senator quite rightly outlined. Some relate to access to information about the services. As Minister of State for disability, I often speak with people who are wondering if they or a loved one might be autistic, along with people who have been diagnosed or self-identify as autistic, and who are asking themselves what they should do and where they can access supports. In those cases, we need to make sure we are giving people the information they need on the supports available. On World Autism Awareness Day in 2021, I announced the Government’s intention to develop a national strategy on autism. If the Senator will bear with me, I will bring him up to speed on that. This has taken the form of an autism innovation strategy, which I intend to launch later this year following a final round of public consultation which will commence later this month. The Government is committed to better meeting the needs of autistic people and their families. In the context of the development of this strategy, work is under way to explore methods of providing enhanced information, signposting of information, and supports regarding autism for autistic people and their families. I want to deliver a shift in the mainstream provision of services which will focus on clear functional actions to identify gaps and bespoke needs on autism that are not accounted for in existing mainstream measures, and to make sure that after the autism innovation strategy, mainstream provision better understands and better meets the needs of autistic people. While I am not yet in a position to outline the specific action plan that will launch within the strategy, I will shortly be in a position to launch the final round of consultation and to set out the programme of work the whole of government will undertake.

To be very clear to the Senator, I have done some individual research on the one-stop shop. I heard members of the committee had travelled to Scotland. When in opposition, I set about looking at dementia, as did the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, and the Scottish model. Hence, she has opened 45 day care centres relating specifically to dementia and that all come from the Scottish model. Therefore, I have looked towards Scotland as well and believe in the piloting of the one-stop shop to see how it would work. I have no doubt it would be a success. It would be a success in an area in which there is a gap that the CDNTs cannot fill, that is, the information piece around the questions people have such as "Am I autistic?", "Where can I go?" and "How can I be assisted?" and proper correct signposting of this. Our CDNTs are under phenomenal pressure and need additional support. Our educational system is also under huge pressure. I am talking about the people under 18 here, never mind how the autistic child or young person who is transitioning at 18 years of age into education or adult education can be supported within third level or as they transition into employment. Therefore, the one-stop shop would be able to signpost and address this, and colocated within the community, to best meet the individual needs. It would have the peer-to-peer leadership piece. At the moment, people in Galway or Longford who are autistic are travelling to one side of the country to be able to participate in that. We need to have a more community-balanced regional development when it comes to supporting young and not so young people who have identified as autistic or who have autistic needs. The only way to do that is through mirroring the Scottish model.

I thank the Senator and the committee for the time and effort they put in to develop a consultation booklet at the close of the committee, within which the need for the community-based approach is also identified. I am hoping there will be the opportunity in this round of HSE grants to identify and work to that piece and take on board the recommendations made by the committee, in consultation with the main stakeholders and partners who all came before the committee. I will be impressing upon the HSE that is it a desire of the Government to see a community pathway developed outside the Dublin commuter belt out into the rest of the country. I will come back in and answer the rest of the questions as to how this will be done.