A new autism assessment protocol, which the HSE said will offer a standardised and more specialised route for children, young people and adults, has been announced.
It will begin to be rolled out in the Health Service Executive and in HSE-funded services from July.
The HSE said the protocol for clinicians will introduce a tiered approach to autism assessment, which aligns with research evidence that some presentations of autism are easier to identify than are others.
Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill said the priority at the moment for the new autism protocol is children but that it can include adults, in the future.
The chief executive of AsIAm said the assessment protocol was a "first step" and that an assessment in of itself was only a starting point.
Adam Harris said it is important that anyone who receives an autism assessment is able to access aftercare.
He also said it was important to resource the system for children and young people and assessments for adults.
Mr Harris said that people have a right to an assessment of needs under the Disability Act.
Earlier this year, AsIAm said the average waiting time for an assessment of needs was 27 months, when it should be no longer than six months under law.
The charity estimates that 3.3% of Ireland's population are autistic.
Speaking on RTÉ's News At One, Mr Harris said autism assessments enables clinicians working across the health service to provide varying levels of input based on the profile of the individual presenting.
This might mean that some people may require a longer assessment process, Mr Harris said.
Listen back: New approach to assessing people for autism
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The clinical judgement should enable the clinicians involved to determine how long they need to spend with a child in order to get an assessment.
Mr Harris also said the newly announced protocol is not a replacement for the assessment of needs process but rather a way of working that can be applied in any aspect of the health service, whether in mental health, disability or primary care services.
"This is not a legislative or statutory tool," he said.
Mr Harris said the protocol is simply a policy - a way of working and that "it's not going to make a difference to waiting times".
He said Ireland is somewhat of an outlier in a European context, in that there is no public pathway when it comes to the assessment of adults.
'Single national standard autism assessment'
Minister of State for Disability Emer Higgins said 40% of children who are diagnosed with a disability are diagnosed as autistic.
Speaking to RTÉ's Drivetime programme, she said the HSE has developed a specific autism assessment and intervention pathways protocol in response to that.
The minister said what has been developed is a "single national standard autism assessment and it’s going to be available right across the HSE".
"So whether you're in primary care, whether you're in one of our disability teams or whether you're linked in with a mental health service, this will be the new standardised way of getting an assessment for autism," she said.
Minister Higgins said the feedback she gets from parents is that the current system is not working.
"They tell me that it's really difficult to navigate and these are parents that are already under a lot of pressure, and they feel that they're fighting the system instead of being supported by the system. So, this protocol has been developed specifically for parents who have children who are presenting as potentially autistic. As we know there's high volumes of this."
"It's going to connect the systems which, as we know, aren't really talking to each other in the way that we would like at the moment. It's going to mean consistency when it comes to clinical approach, and it's going to provide certainty for parents and families as to what the pathway is," the minister added.
