Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. As with Hefin David, I have to declare an interest in that my near-five-year-old granddaughter is autistic. Whilst her autism was diagnosed very early on, I believe this was by chance rather than by local agency intervention. A teacher at the nursery that she attended had an autistic child herself and so alerted us to the fact that she was showing autistic traits. Her parents immediately sought advice, and it must be said that the support they are receiving post recognition has been excellent and the support from the teaching staff at her nursery has been exemplary.

However, it remains a fact that many autistic children are not diagnosed at an early stage, and so much-needed interventions do not occur. In many instances, parents have faced a long and difficult fight to have their child diagnosed, leading to great stress and a prolonged wait for help and advice. Perhaps the Minister could comment on progress made in this critical area. We must, of course, acknowledge here the setting up of the national development team and the excellent progress they are making, particularly in the area of autism awareness training, which they are rolling out across both the public and private sectors. We also accept that this is very much still work in progress, but results so far are very encouraging, and we congratulate the team on their achievements since its inception.

Could the Minister indicate where he feels the next priorities lie for the development team? We should also acknowledge that local autistic groups do an excellent job in bringing parents of autistic children together, and they give help and support to those who are in touch. There's no better intervention for the parents of autistic children than that of parents of an autistic child. However, if a child is not diagnosed as autistic, parents of such children are often not aware of such groups and so lose out on the much-needed support. Will the Minister outline his support for such groups?

Although there has been substantial progress over recent years, it does appear that the support services are still piecemeal, where some areas give excellent support post diagnosis, while others fall short of providing the support needed. We would hope that a development board will alleviate this problem in the future by providing the basis for a more joined-up provision, thus facilitating a more consistent service across all local authorities and health boards.

Finally, Minister, as a grandparent of an autistic child, I thank the Government for their positive interventions thus far but urge you to make sure that adequate funding is made available so that these services may be maintained in future years. And will the Minister outline how the Government will commit to this future funding?