The founder and CEO of Autism advocacy group As I Am, Adam Harris has said that they will hold the government to account to provide a statutory footing for its Autism Innovation Strategy.
The strategy was launched by Taoiseach Simon Harris, Minister for Integration Roderic O'Gorman and Minister of State for Disability Anne Rabbitte on Monday.
It includes 83 specific measures under areas such as equality and access, inclusive communities and service improvements. The plan includes a commitment to implement the measures within the next 18 months.
“We know our work begins today. The strategy is in place, but we now need to hold government to account. It's an 18-month strategy. We want to see a long term multiannual strategy that's guaranteed and on a statutory footing. That's why we need the legislation," Mr Harris said.
“We're approaching a general election by March next year, and we want to call on all parties to make a statute, a commitment that they would place this on a statutory footing within their manifesto,” he told RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland.
Mr Harris said that As I Am had been campaigning for 10 years for a national autism strategy.
“Most of the European countries surrounding us have such a strategy in place, and overwhelmingly and repeatedly, the Irish public, political parties and indeed the autism community itself has demonstrated its support for such a strategy.
“The reason it's important to have an autism innovation strategy is it's about recognising those specific, bespoke challenges that affect autistic people, the lack of understanding in society, the siloing of public services, and the inaccessibility of many aspects of the community.
“Very often we just see autistic people as passive recipients as opposed to active participants within the community. So this strategy - across four pillars, from inclusive communities to building capacity, sets out 83 ambitious actions in an 18-month period to break down some of those barriers so that autistic people have the same chance," Mr Harris added.
“Where it's really important is taking action in a new area. So, for example, creating a pathway for public assessment for autistic adults, recognising the need for greater research in autism in areas such as life expectancy, which we know is much shorter for our community, and suicide prevention, and also putting in place targeted funding to the Autism Innovation Fund to enable grassroots activity on the ground.”
However, Mr Harris cautioned that no report or strategy was a panacea.
“We've seen reports on autism before. The Joint Practice Committee report on autism last year recommended very clearly that this strategy needed to be legislated for. So we're calling for urgent legislation to put that in place.
"We're also calling for appropriate resourcing and implementation. We're good at strategies, we're not good at implementation.”
There needed to be “a breaking of the disconnect” between capital funding and demand within the education system, he added. “Week on week, the state is literally spending millions of euros to bus autistic people out of their community, rather than a one off investment to plan and put in place autism-specific classes.”
Mr Harris said that at present there wasn’t a national disability inclusion strategy. “That's the strategy that deals with the assessment and process of progressing of disability services. We desperately need to see that published and resourced equally.
“What we need to see is a follow through on addressing once and for all this issue around education. We're calling on the department to put in place a circular this year to move beyond this year to year planning for places for autistic students and schools towards a multi-year approach.
“What we need to see is an autism innovation strategy, which is about saying when you get into school, what happens next when you are present to an Intreo office looking for work, what happens next? Because to date the only discussion around disability has been around resourcing and places, which is vital and we're failing, but in the end has to move on to what happens when you get into the place. That's what inclusion is about, and that's why this strategy is so important.”
The new government strategy will be overseen by a number of groups representing autistic people, he said.
“This strategy very much has placed the lived experience of autistic people at the centre. And core to that is the Autism Innovation Strategy, Oversight and Advisory Groups. That's an autistic majority committee that has been tasked with overseeing this strategy, interpreting it and holding government to account.”
