Ms Eileen Daly:

I thank the committee for inviting me here today. I propose to use this opportunity to speak from personal experience and also as a professional working in the area of education supporting people with disabilities to transition from further and higher education into employment. I graduated from University College Dublin in 1994 with a social science degree, following which it took me about one year to enter employment. I can categorically say that this was possible because I had a personal assistant throughout my education. I was also fortunate enough to be able to use my personal assistant service to transition into employment.

The reason for that is I came into the system under the old conditions. Therefore, I did not have to give up my personal assistant service after I graduated from college. Nowadays, the system is very different. The funding structures, etc., are different. When a young person graduates from further or higher education, he or she no longer has an automatic entitlement to a personal assistant when he or she enters employment. Obviously, not everyone requires this support. It is required by many people with mobility issues and physical disabilities.

I would like to explain what personal assistants do for people in their workplaces. My personal assistant assists me in doing my job. I am employed by my employer. I am the person with the qualifications to carry out my role. My personal assistant follows my instructions and carries out tasks under my supervision that I am physically incapable of doing. Everything comes back on me as my ultimate responsibility. My personal assistant is not a burden on my employer. I employ her. It is really important for this to be clearly understood from an employer's perspective. This service or entitlement is no longer provided to many young people, and indeed older people. I categorically believe this is a fundamental barrier to employment.

In recent years, I have been working in the further education service with the Rehab group. I provide a service to people who are transitioning from special education into the mainstream system. Many of these people have been told from a very young age that they are failures and cannot and should not have expectations for themselves. Their parents also hear this when their children are very young. Part of my job is to challenge not only the internalised perceptions of these people, but also the perceptions of society at large. It is worrying that numbers have been decreasing instead of increasing in recent years.

I thought about this aspect of the matter as I prepared to come to this morning's meeting. In Ireland, we are very good at getting European funding and running very successful projects that enable people to try out things. The outcomes can be very successful. I was fortunate enough to be involved and employed in the career pathways project, which was initiated by Trinity College. The purpose of the project was to support people with disabilities as they prepare to make the transition from study to employment. The outcomes of this project, which enabled and supported people in getting jobs, were very positive.

During the course of this three-year project, I helped people with everything from CV preparation and interview skills to disclosure of disability. How should someone who has a hidden disability disclose that to a prospective employer? At what stage should this be done? How can one become confident in articulating one's needs and selling one's qualities? How can one demonstrate to oneself and others that one has a valuable contribution to make in the labour market? Despite all the positive outcomes - this project has won two awards for the substantial impact it has made in people's lives - unfortunately it was decided to discontinue the project when the funding dried up.

Many people were left without a service, essentially. People's lives are worth much more than that. I am one of the lucky ones. I should not feel lucky. This should be an automatic human right for everyone.

The alarming lack of a comprehensive career guidance service in special schools has been highlighted in the media in recent weeks. It is old news, but it really has to change. It demonstrates the lack of value placed by the Government and by society at large on anyone who is different or does not fit the mould. If there is one message I would like to get across to the committee today, it is that there needs to be more communication between the Departments of Health, Education and Skills, and Employment Affairs and Social Protection. It is only through constant communication, dialogue and negotiation that the issues which prevent people from accessing education and employment can be addressed.

As Ms Ní Mhaoláin and Mr. Moran have demonstrated, people with disabilities want to work. From my perspective, it is very uncomfortable to be asked by parents, and others who see me performing in my job, to explain how I have succeeded. When I share a certain amount with them, as appropriate, they ask me how they can get what I have. In such circumstances, I have to tell them honestly that they do not have an automatic human right to that. All I can do is give them some pointers and guidelines on how to advocate for themselves. In my opinion, that is no longer acceptable in 2018.