Barry Andrews (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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Question 216: To ask the Minister for Health and Children if her attention has been drawn to the fact that the intellectual disability database does not specifically record the incidence of autism which reduces the knowledge of its prevalence and accordingly, the ability to address issues for those with the condition. [16578/08]

Jimmy Devins (Sligo-North Leitrim, Fianna Fail)
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The National Intellectual Disability Database was established in 1995 to ensure that information is available to enable the Department of Health and Children, the Health Service Executive and the voluntary agencies in Ireland to provide appropriate services designed to meet the changing needs of people with intellectual disability and those with autism and their families. The Database incorporates three basic elements of information: demographic details, current service provision and future service requirements. The objective is to obtain this information for every individual known to have an intellectual disability and/or autism and assessed as being in receipt of, or in need of, an appropriate service. There is no compulsory requirement on a person with an intellectual disability and or autism to register with the data base.

Information pertaining to diagnosis is specifically excluded, as the database is not designed as a medical epidemiological tool. Accordingly the database does not record the incidence of autism or any other disability.

My Department and the HSE are committed to reviewing existing information management systems within the disability services, including the databases, in order to provide the most effective method of collecting data to meet the requirements of the Disability Act, 2005 and for the purposes of planing services to meet the needs of people with a disability.