Erin McGreehan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank all the witnesses and wish them all a very happy International Women's Week. I feel blown away and emotional following all of the contributions, which have highlighted why this committee is so important and how it can make issues visible. Visibility is the problem. For too long, the needs of people with difference in this country have been invisible. I have learned so much from all the witnesses this morning. I feel incredibly hurt and have been upset by some of the comments because of the impact on our guests' basic human rights to be parents, to be women, to have reproductive rights, to have sexual rights and to be who they are. The theme of today's meeting was equality and equity. The equity part is really important to me because it is about recognising difference, recognising difference in us all, and appreciating and celebrating differences but putting things in place that make those differences null and void and makes us all achieve what we need to achieve.

Many really good questions have been asked and I will not go back over them but I do not believe the disability allowance issues have been dealt with. There is clearly a huge issue in the system when 42% of applications are disallowed but 70% of those are granted on appeal. Why are the applications granted after initially being disallowed? To me, turning down applications proves that there is a serious lack of procedure and that people are not being listened to. There is always a margin for error but 70% is a huge error.

I thank the witnesses for their contributions as I have gained so much from them. It is about getting access, transport, employment, education and healthcare and to have a society where we can all enjoy this country and families to the best of our abilities.