Statement by TUV East Antrim candidate Ruth Wilson:
“In this election TUV has outlined a number of commitments to the disabled which we wish to push for in the next Assembly.
“We believe that the Department for Enterprise, Trade and Investment should introduce a requirement that Invest NI offers for job creation assistance must include a provision that a percentage of the jobs be made available for people with disabilities.
“This is something which Jim Allister sought to press the DETI Minister on in the last Assembly and an issue which an increased TUV presence in the next will ensure does not fall by the wayside.
“Similarly, TUV is committed to continuing to highlight the needs of those with autism. The last Assembly term saw unacceptable delays in people being assessed for autism, with over 900 waiting beyond the promised 13-week limit. This was directly linked to poor government policy. In October 2015 TUV exposed the fact that although the Northern Trust is the largest health and social care trust in Northern Ireland, it has only 11 of the total of 68 clinicians trained to diagnose autism, whereas the Southern Trust has 23. A third of the total number of clinicians are in the Southern Trust but, in Belfast, there are only 11, in the Northern 11, in the South Eastern only 9, and in the Western only 14. Without equality of distribution of clinicians to diagnose autism, the postcode lottery kicks in.
“While the recent announcement of a £2m boost for autism services is welcome, there are still major challenges which need to be addressed, particularly when it comes to the disjointed approach between the health service and education.
“TUV also wants to see more being done to help students with dyslexia. Through Assembly questions TUV leader Jim Allister revealed that there are 3,273 pupils in primary schools and 5,770 pupils in post-primary schools in Northern Ireland who have been diagnosed with dyslexia. The Department of Employment and Learning does not collect data on people in third level education who are dyslexic.
“TUV believes that early diagnosis is important so that proper support mechanisms and allowances when it comes to examinations can be made in order to enable young people suffering from dyslexic and other learning difficulties to achieve their full potential.
“TUV believes that data on the number of people in third level education with dyslexia ought to be collected centrally so that government can address any shortcoming in relation to support for such students.
“Finally, in our manifesto we highlight the fact that in Scotland the British Sign Language (BSL) Bill requires Ministers to develop a national plan for BSL and places an obligation on public-sector bodies to prepare and publish their own plans with the aim of increasing awareness of sign language and its use in the delivery of services.
“TUV believes that some of the money currently squandered on Irish should be invested in investigating the need for such legislation in Northern Ireland and the feasibility of implementing it.”