Ms Leah Johnston:

I thank Senator Fintan Warfield for the invitation to contribute. On a point raised by Mr. Naughton about a survey we carried out, it is about attendance, as well as participation. Our research indicates that persons with disabilities want to do the same as everybody else.

It is about taking down the barriers to attendance. When we surveyed them, 94% of people with disabilities said they had cut back on at least one of their social activities in the previous five years. The key barriers to going out were cost, no one to go out with and transport, of which access is part. I include access services such as audio description and captioning and sign language interpretation.