Mr. John Dolan:

If the way we have implemented the disability strategy so far continues, it will be a failure. The Department of the Taoiseach needs to be leading and drawing in all the other Departments and public bodies with a master plan to do this. The programme for Government, as I said, after we knew we were in Covid and long before we had any hope of a vaccine, made specific commitments to deliver on the strategy. The budget is now the next obvious place we can see and people with disabilities can see, in their pockets - or not in their pockets - and in their services, what is happening and where we can move on those pieces of legislation and whatever.

People with disabilities must be front and centre, and every other entity and organisation in the State has to come in around that to do the problem solving and to work with people. I cannot emphasise enough that poverty and exclusion are the twin parts of life for everyone with a disability.

Over the past year, thousands of new people entered the world of disability during Covid. Covid will wane but living with a disability will not. That is the challenge. I wish the committee the best of luck. It is brilliant to have this committee in place to draw on a whole range of things. I was excited to see the work the committee did on International Women's Day when it had women with disabilities giving witness to their lived experience.