Dan Neville (Limerick, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Have any studies been carried out on the level of mental ill-health among the group, in other words on the areas of psychosis and depression? It would be an interesting study given the experience of most of those with an intellectual disability. Obviously there a level of stigma surrounding mental ill-health and mental disability, but society often does not distinguish between intellectual disability and mental illness. It is something I find hard to break through. People with an intellectual disability do not in any circumstances have an illness; they have a condition from birth like most of us have, be it physical or mental. Is there research or have studies been done on that area, because over a number of years I have encountered a misunderstanding about intellectual disability?