Mr. Padraic Moran:

Before I start I want to thank Senator Dolan, Mr. Ciarán Delaney and and Ms Doreen Magee for giving us the opportunity to address the committee today. I think it is vitally important to get evidence and hear from people that are actually affected on a daily basis and hear about what we go through.

To give the committee a bit of background about me, I am 34 years old. I have cerebral palsy which affects my motor control, so I require a motorised wheelchair to get around. I also have a task dog named Gail, to retrieve dropped items, help me take my coat off and perform basic tasks. Due to this, I no longer need as much help as I would. This has been provided to me by Dogs for the Disabled. I am a two-time Paralympian and a former world champion in the sport of boccia. I have just completed my degree in communications at Dublin City University, and I also compete for that university in powerchair football at European level.

Growing up in Ireland with any type of impairment is hard, because it is always a battle to access service that one needs. I have been very lucky in that both my Mum and Dad instilled a good work ethic in me and always told me not to accept the norm. Growing up in Ireland, one wonders whether one will be lucky enough to gain employment. The answer for me is "yes", despite the fact that the system does its best to keep a person like me claiming social welfare. In 2006, I started working for East Coast FM in production. The station gradually upskilled me to mixing and producing, before I moved into the role of sports reporter on a freelance basis. The management and staff of East Coast FM have always challenged me to become the best that I can be.

In 2014, I secured a full-time job at Sky Ireland. It is an outstanding employer with a world-class inclusivity policy, and any supports I have required have been put in place. My colleagues are the best that anyone could wish for, and they really take excellent care of Gail and me. I am now a service and loyalty specialist, having been promoted. When I started working, I lost my disability and medical card after a few months, and my travel pass two years later. The income disregard of €120 has not been renewed since 2006. That really needs to be looked at again. The members of the committee also might want to factor in that the disability allowance payment is exactly the same as the jobseeker’s allowance payment. Unemployment is a temporary condition, while I think the committee will accept that cerebral palsy, autism and most other physical disabilities are permanent. The State does not factor in the extra overheads that people with disabilities encounter every day. There is also no consideration in the income tax system of the extra costs that a person with a disability has to face.

I require a personal assistant to help me function, which I get for ten hours a week. These ten hours were allocated to me in 2011, and that plan has never been renewed or updated, nor has anyone ever asked me if it has changed. Last February, I was afforded the opportunity to address the Joint Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport on the difficulties that I was facing with Irish Rail. After giving evidence to the committee, I was targeted because I dared to speak out to the media and expose the challenges that a person in a wheelchair faces on a daily basis. As most of the members will know, Mr. Delaney is very good at what he does. He agreed to advocate for me and help me to resolve those issues. He attended a meeting with myself and the new CEO, Mr. Jim Meade. Ciarán dissected the evidence and presented my case, outlining what I was subjected to. In fairness to Mr. Meade, he acted on that. My fine was rescinded and I was offered lots of help. In that regard, I would like to thank Irish Rail and the new chairman, Mr. Frank Allen. Irish Rail is becoming a better company, trying to improve services for people in wheelchairs.

Another part of my problem with the current system concerns my supports.

Twelve per cent of my monthly salary is spent on funding additional personal assistant hours because I cannot function on ten hours per week. I have the long-term illness coverage because I have cerebral palsy. I am also asthmatic but because asthma is not a cerebral palsy related condition my inhalers are no longer covered under this scheme.

In terms of education, I have been really lucky in terms of the supports provided to me by Dublin City University. A friend of mine wants to pursue a course in a college of further education but she is being denied access because the college refuses to purchase a hoist or put in place supports to enable her to use the toilets. Senator Dolan and Ciarán Delaney have done a lot of work to improve access. This is another barrier being put in the way of a person trying to access a fundamental service. People with disabilities are often forgotten in the crossfire. We are not seen as a large voting group because we cannot engage in mass protest and so it is slightly easier to make cuts to our services. There are many advocacy groups and people on large salaries making decisions that affect us but up to now engagement with people with disabilities who face additional overheads in this regard has been rare. It is important that meetings like this continue to happen.

A few months, I had to have my glasses upgraded. When I applied for PRSI relief in an effort to recoup some of that cost I was told I was not entitled to it because I had not worked for five consecutive years. There is supposed to be a five-year transition period for people who move from the disability allowance to employment but that transition period was never applied to me. My allowance was taken from me straight away. When I engaged with the then Department of Social Protection I was told by a member of staff that if I returned to part-time work I would get all of my benefits back. This is a damning indictment of the system. If the Government continues to decimate supports, people with disabilities will not move into employment. There are plenty of people with disabilities who are able to work. However, if in doing so their supports are withdrawn it will have a massive impact on their lives. We are supposed to be afforded fundamental human rights. The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, UNCRPD, has been ratified but the protocol has not. In Ireland, we do little bits but we do not do enough. People with disabilities get a few crumbs every now and again to keep them happy. We need more than token gestures, we need action. I take this opportunity to thank the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Ross, for commencing the process of appointing people with disabilities to the boards of public transport bodies and to Sport Ireland to help improve fundamental services. All Ministers and committees should follow this lead and actively engage, as we are today, with people with disabilities to ensure the system works more conducively for people with disabilities.