Ms Mara-Daniela Calista:

I will answer two questions for Deputy Gino Kenny. Romania has ratified the UN convention. We have ratified it but we do not have the same percentage of accessibility as Ireland, although I understand that Ireland has not yet ratified the convention. Another problem we now face in Romania, hence my earlier question regarding people with disabilities, is how we can make them feel important. encourage them want to work in some field, whether public or private, and allow them to do so rather than paying them to stay at home. For example, one might not have a hand or a leg or such and be given money by the state to stay at home. That is not a solution. The solution to bring them with us and make them feel like real citizens, actually doing something for the community because they can. There are people who can think and write, who might not be able to hear but can see or who might have other combinations of disabilities. One of our main focuses in Romania is how to get these people into employment. To do so, one needs to have a ramp for them to get into institutions, for example, to enable people to get from the first floor to the second floor or to have a bathroom adapted for them. These are the minimum accessibility priorities we must facilitate in the context of these people in order to allow them to come to us - the public institutions - and to the private sector. At the same time, however, we should be there for them. In Romania, we are now focusing on how to increase the number of people with disabilities in the public and private sectors.