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

It was remiss of me not to mention AsIAm and the telephone line which we launched 18 months or two years ago at this stage. In the first year of operation, it had over 5,500 calls from callers wondering how to assist their children or teenagers and from young adults themselves asking how to access a diagnosis and engage in education. That telephone line has proved its worth in spades. That is why I am saying we need that personal face as well. We need to have the peer-to-peer support groups, the parental group, and the community-based model given that one in 27 within education is now identifying as being on the autism spectrum. With one in 27 people in any community space, we need to have a more accessible inclusive integrated community-based model of support. I support, as does the Government, the Senator's ask today.