Eileen Flynn (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for attending. The issue of people with disabilities and employment is a critically important. If I have learned anything from this committee, it is around my language and that sometimes there is no way just by looking at a person to know if that person has a disability or not so I want to put that straight for the record. Sometimes it does not come out very well when I speak about people with disabilities or disabled people.

There are big decision-makers out there who make decisions about people who are disabled and people with disabilities. The people who are impacted by or affected with disabilities are not around these tables. We need to be very mindful of that. There is very little participation or representation in the Houses of the Oireachtas for people with disabilities and we have never had a disabled Member of any of the Houses who has been a wheelchair user.