Autism (Amendment) Bill: Second Stage

Part of Private Members' Business – in the Northern Ireland Assembly at 12:15 pm on 21 September 2021.

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Photo of Robbie Butler Robbie Butler UUP 12:15, 21 September 2021

My remarks will be brief. It is a privilege to follow Mr McNulty, whose words were excellent. He gave us really good examples of real-life impacts and of some of the good stuff that goes on. It is always a wonder how he is able to get in GAA sports as the fix-all. However, Justin is absolutely right that other outlets, parents and organisers of sports already lead the way in some of the things that can be done to support those with autism: children, young people and even adults.

I am thinking of an initiative that was started recently in Portadown by Hanover FC, which runs a very similar sporting outlet for children who have autism and other challenging issues. Ballymacash Rangers in Lisburn has also run events like that.

As a legislature, we need to embrace what is in front of us today. I must go on record to thank Pam, the chair of the APG. That APG was one of the first ones that I signed up to in 2016. We have all aged a little bit since 2016, particularly me. I had brown hair back then; it is silver at the sides now. A few others in here may have changed a little bit since then, too. The deputy chair, Cathal, to be fair, has been robust. The APG has been collegiate the whole time. I am not being rude, but I cannot mention all the members, because it has been a well-supported APG. This Bill has been a while in the making, and it is great to be here today. It is really good to be in the Chamber when, across the House, we are hearing very similar remarks. We are finding broad support for what is in front of us today. Behind the scenes, we have support from the secretariat, Autism NI in particular and the National Autistic Society. Without their advocacy, this would not be possible. They speak on behalf of many parents and young people.

The APG held evidence sessions, which were priceless, and the information really came home during those sessions. We have heard lots of statistics on prevalence and so on today, but those things are kind of cold, because, unless you have had that personal experience, you are talking about a number. When we had those evidence sessions, we talked to carers, parents and people who have autism and heard about the real-life experiences and challenges. That is probably what gave us and Pam the energy to put the Bill together. I thank Pam, the members of the APG, the secretariat, the National Autistic Society and those who have contributed to the Bill getting this far.

I also want to thank the Minister. I do not say this because he is a Minister from my party; I will thank whoever deserves credit. In the midst of a COVID pandemic, and in the midst of other priorities like mental health and so on, the Minister has seen this as a priority and has, in this mandate, already started the ball rolling, and I know that he will be behind creating good legislation here. I thank him for that.

I was going to say that one thing had not been covered, but Justin, to be fair to him, covered it. We have talked about the prevalence. The other thing is the life opportunities and the pressures, whether educational or in the workplace, on people who have a diagnosis of autism. It is good to see that that has been recognised in the Bill and can be built upon. Proposed new subsection (4A) tilts us towards that cross-departmental working. This is a cradle-to-grave approach. We should not just be looking at this in the context of the education piece at the start, albeit the start is probably the most important piece, and support needs to be there for the young people, their family and those around them. The systems need to be there for those people, whether in our schools, further education or higher education colleges for transitions into work, and we need to ensure that we have created the greatest scope of opportunity for those people. We will be giving them hope, too. We will be putting them front and centre of our discussions and will be creating, hopefully through cross-departmental working, opportunities for them to genuinely live their best life.

I am looking forward to the Bill going through Committee. The Chair of the Education Committee made a good point, saying that we can make amendments to the Bill, not to take away from it but to add to it and perhaps champion, in the Department for Communities or wherever it may be, the need to make sure that our priority is the quarter of the service users who may need that additionality. That would be a useful addition to this, and we need to be proactive about it.

I will close on this point. I do not want to get too far into the debate on education and teacher training. We were pretty collegiate in the Chamber with regard to that. We visited Middletown a number of years ago, and the former Minister of Education has put the case well that when something is birthed, it can change, it can be agile and it can be better, and we need to be mindful of that. The Bill, which is at Second Stage, gives us a really good blueprint to do something that will make a difference to the lives of those people who need our support. We will support the Bill.