Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for coming in today and for all the work they have been doing during this period. The secretariat did an excellent report compiling the various written submissions. I thank them for that because it shows the complexity of what we are talking about and how many people with different issues in their lives are impacted. I made some notes as I went through it. When we think about the people we are talking about today and the impact on them, it is people who are deaf, blind, have intellectual disabilities or who require physical therapy or speech and language therapy. It is about the dignity of work and being able, or unable, to participate in work. There are many complexities to it and I know that all the organisations the witnesses represent have faced different challenges. Speaking with MS Ireland, for example, at once stage throughout it, it described the community impact, as the witnesses described, in terms of people not being able to get physical therapy. That is one small example.

If we put aside residential settings for a moment, we have seen the impact on people at home, and the witnesses spoke about the family care burden. From a practical perspective, will the witnesses talk about the sorts of services that have been lost because of the need to cocoon or the need to not have people coming into the house? They might list them out so that we can get a sense of it. It might be a question for the Disability Federation of Ireland, DFI.