Mark Wall (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State. I also welcome to the House our friends and colleagues from AsIAm. I thank them for all their advocacy and help in preparing this report.

Previous speakers rightly thanked Senator Carrigy for his work as Cathaoirleach of the committee. I do the same. At various meetings we had, we learned of the opposition there was to his setting up the committee in the first place. He stood fast, with the help of many others, including the Minister of State, to ensure the committee was established. It is a great credit to him that it has issued its report with 109 recommendations. I thank the Senator again for his work. He comes to the issue from a personal point of view but he put that aside to help everybody. It was not just a personal crusade but a crusade on behalf of every child with autism in the country. He deserves great credit for what he did in setting up the committee. I was, and remain, proud to have been a member of it.

At our last meeting, the Minister of State spoke to us about enacting the autism strategy. She carried that out during the summer. It is a very important step forward. I thank the Government for ratifying the optional protocol to the UNCRPD. That is another important step forward. Yet another important step was the Oireachtas becoming an autism-friendly Parliament. Huge credit is due to Senator Carrigy and every Member of the House who took part in the training with which AsIAm assisted. It is important that we lead by example. By doing so, the Oireachtas leads the way for every other public building to become autism-friendly.

The summer programme, previously known as the July programme, has been mentioned by many colleagues. We all understand the importance of that programme to so many families. It is important because there is one word that comes back and rings in my ears every time I talk to people about these issues. That word is "routine", as mentioned by the Minister of State. When we talk to families, the talk is all about routine. It is about the two, three or four weeks, or whatever they are lucky enough to get, for which the routine is carried on for the children who need it most. It is those children and their families who avail of this provision the most. I cannot encourage everyone in the Government enough, and Members from every party, to ensure that whatever manifesto they are considering, the summer programme will be included it and will include provision for every child. Every school should be assisted and cajoled - I could use stronger words - to participate. We need to see a summer programme in every school to facilitate these children's routines. That is vital to families throughout the State. We did a lot of work on this in the committee, including issued an interim report, under the chairmanship of Senator Carrigy. That work has led to more schools taking up the baton. However, as the Senator would say, there are still too many schools not taking up that baton.

I have spoken to the Minister of State previously about the provision of school places. I recently visited a number of schools in the Newbridge area. I have dealt with families who had to ring 30-plus schools looking for a place for their loved one. I was informed of one family who had to contact 47 different schools seeking a place. That is not acceptable in this day and age. The average number of schools to which parents must apply is now down to approximately 35 in that particular area. I have mentioned previously the great job special educational needs organisers, SENOs, do. Can they do more to assist families in this regard? A central application process for school places is something we talked about at the committee. It has also been raised by AsIAm and, indeed, by the Minister of State. We must ensure families are assisted at their time of need and that, if a school place is available for their loved one, they are not left to spend hours and days on multiple phone calls to 47 different schools.The Minister of State and I have spoken previously in this room about assessments of need and at our previous meeting, she said that figure could grow to 20,000 by the end of the year. I recognise what she has done and her very good intentions in trying to reduce that figure, but it is totally unacceptable, as she has said previously. She has mentioned déjà vu in the past. We need to work on that figure and ensure the families who are crying out for assessments of need will be assisted as quickly as possible.

With that come the CDNTs and the services. In my local CHO, three families have been waiting on speech and language therapy for a year or more, which is unacceptable. All of us, including the Minister of State more than anyone, are aware of the benefits of early intervention and how important it is in the case of speech and language therapy, but it is not just speech and language. We also need to look at the other services and invest in them. The Minister of State has put a great deal of effort into this but we need to make sure the Government, and whoever comes next, will continue the work she has done because it is not acceptable that so many families are crying out for services for their loved ones.

A number of Senators have talked about employment places, an issue AsIAm has raised with us a number of times at our committee. That autistic people, as the statistics show, have some of the worst employment records is simply not good enough. We need to do more and create an environment where employers will take on autistic persons. One of the wishes of our report was that, by highlighting this, employers would see the benefits of hiring someone, of which there are many, and we all need to say that again and again. I know it is a point the Minister of State and the committee Chair, Senator Carrigy, have made a number of times.

As Mr. Harris will know, I am a big believer in autism-friendly towns, and AsIAm is leading on that. I forget the exact figure, but I think there are currently 30 or more. They are intended to create an atmosphere whereby it is okay to bring a child or an adult downtown and it is okay for them to be themselves in their hometown, with everybody knowing there is a friendly atmosphere there. It is so important to families that this friendly atmosphere is there whereby people can go about their own way of life and allow autistic families to go about theirs without the staring and looking that has happened so often with autistic families who have talked to me. That cannot continue, and I congratulate AsIAm on the work it has done on autism-friendly towns. Long may it continue, and I hope other towns will join in.

Senator Carrigy spoke about Dr. Ruddy and the €28,000 cost per year. That was a startling figure for all of us when he heard it at the committee. I know that the Government has looked at it but - I am probably speaking again with an election hat here - every political party needs to look at it because it is an unacceptable figure for any family.

The one-stop shops are a great idea and I know from our meeting the other day that some have started up, while others are in the pipeline. I encourage the Minister of State and the Government to ensure those one-stop shops will be rolled out as quickly as possible, which was an immediate ask from the committee. When we deal with families, there are so many asks, and if they can pick up the phone or call into such a premises, they will get the assistance they need.

On the housing adaptation grants, unfortunately, I am running out of time. It is welcome that there was a proposal to increase them to €40,000, but that is not enough. It should be nearer to €60,000 because that would reflect what families tell me they need when they are trying to adapt their house. Nevertheless, €40,000 is a step forward.

I invited in a special needs action group, SNAG, from my hometown, Athy, and it was one of the many groups we met on the day. It is a great group that does tremendous work with 20 or 30 families every Wednesday night in the local college, where people gather, talk about their difficulties and help one another. Those groups need to be supported, get finance and get the support of the Government because they do a tremendous job. I know that AsIAm will agree with me but I want to highlight those groups, which have been set up in every town in Ireland. They just need to be supported.