John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I read through the opening statements and I will have a look over the contributions of all the witnesses. I will briefly address the statistic that 26% of people with a disability live in consistent poverty.

From my perspective, as a member of the social protection committee and this being my area of work, this is enough to set off alarm bells.

Some positive moves are happening, and I welcome the Oireachtas initiatives with WALK to bring in people with intellectual disabilities, but it shows clear problems because that organisation has to fight to get funding on an annual basis. It does not know from one year to the next whether the project will be able to sustain itself. While it is welcome, it throws open huge discrepancies and anomalies in security of funding. To my eyes, the work done by WALK should be a template to be replicated throughout the State. I will not ask any questions because I do not want to prolong this any longer than it needs to be. I commend the witnesses for coming here. I commend Senator Dolan for the work he continues to do on this issue and I look forward to further meetings, hopefully, of these committees to look at this very important issue. I thank the Co-Chairman.