Ms Amy Hassett:

To make a follow-up point on the comments, in our experience it has been transformative for disabled women to identify as disabled. I highlight that because it is powerful to define oneself in the terminology that suits best. It is most moving for us in Disabled Women Ireland to have a lot of people come forward and say they now feel comfortable identifying as disabled and they can better take up and fight for their rights now that they have this terminology. I mention that because it is really important.

Also mentioned was the importance of women breaking down barriers for other women. That is incredibly important. It is important for us, as disabled women and as women, and also for everyone here to acknowledge that there are many different aspects of identity, including gender, age, whether somebody is LGBTQ, black or from a different ethnic minority, or a Traveller, Roma, transgender or from a different socioeconomic background. I want to highlight that as disabled persons organisations and other organisations requesting support, we need to make sure we do that in a way that is inclusive of the diversity of experience that people have. It is important that we are focusing on women with disabilities today but we need to use that as a springboard for including people with other identities and to step up and pull up people behind us as we go.

My final point relates to the involvement of disabled women in women's organisations. We stated in our submission that this is a resource issue. Disabled persons organisations are facing a massive resource issue. Ms Ní Fhlatharta spoke about the national platform, which is the most concerning issue we have in the disabled persons organisations.

Access is difficult because it takes resources to make things accessible. Sign language interpretation costs money, having a Zoom account that has closed captioning is expensive and so on. When we go back to doing things in the physical world, more barriers will emerge again. We have to be empathetic and compassionate and understand that there are limited resources but if there are individuals who feel they are not being included in the broader conversation, we need to see if they are being given the resources and support they need to be included. We are all trying to do our best with the resources that we have but we should not have to make decisions and choose one or the other.