Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank everyone for their inputs. Disability-proofing and data in this regard are extremely important. Our goal must be to ensure this type of data collection happens. There are huge challenges in this regard. I refer to population growth. The ageing population, especially, is a big challenge for us. It is generally accepted that the cost-of-living crisis has affected people with disabilities more than anyone else. An issue was raised about children with disabilities, like autism spectrum disorder, ASD, who were involved in legal actions against the State without their parents' knowledge. Dossiers were kept on them. How widespread is this practice? What penalties are faced as a result of this? I ask this because I am sure there are plenty of other areas where this is happening, where actions are taken against the State and the people involved are being marked out for special attention, if we wish to call it that. I am just curious about this aspect.

In the context of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, UNCRPD, I also wish to ask about the Mental Health Act 2001 and ensuring it is UNCRPD-proof. My experience over the years regarding people with mental health issues is that they have been turned away when they have turned up in accident and emergency departments. We are now supposed to have psychiatric nurses on hand, but this development only happened in the last two years or so as a result of having a huge number of people being turned away from hospitals. Do we take note of all this? Many of these people have dual diagnoses as well and this is not catered for. I am wondering about this issue as well.

Turning to the witnesses from the CSO, I have a case in hand and an issue I wish to raise in that regard. I have a person with schizoaffective disorder who is on disability allowance. He received a notice from the Department of Social Protection to tell him that his disability allowance will be stopped unless he submits doctors' letters, etc.

The diagnosis is lifelong. It is not something that will change, but the Department of Social Protection insists on these letters being sent from doctors. Surely this is a breach of human rights. What engagement has taken place with the Department? This is only one example of many I have come across. These are lifelong diagnoses. On the original application for, say, social welfare, a box is ticked to indicate whether the condition is long term, short term or temporary. The applicant ticks the long-term box. I am curious as to whether those forms are checked. Do we have a way of checking all these application forms? Is the onus on the CSO to do that? I am not sure but I am curious as to whether this issue has been raised with it.