Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for the great presentations. Many issues were raised. I will put aside the congregated settings. I was very interested to hear what Ms Dempsey had to say around digital empowerment, the web accessibility directive and assistive technology. I would be very interested if Ms Dempsey had something in writing on that, as my time is limited.

I want to talk about the big picture. We have talked about the pieces that need to be done and about the legislation already in play. I will address two other pieces that I feel we need if we are to take leaps forward: the statutory entitlement to home care and the regulation of home care. How quickly and how massively can we scale that up? Has it in fact now moved to the point where we have delayed in delivering these, and the level of ambition has to actually increase to look not just at a statutory entitlement to regulated home care but a statutory entitlement to personal assistance so a person could have that political, cultural and full participation in life? Should we raise the ambition of that as well as delivering it? That is from the individual perspective.

From a societal perspective, reference was made to the public sector duty. I know Mr. Dolan. I co-sponsored legislation with him around how we could put community participation into effect. In this context, I turn to the national development plan and local development plans. The national development plan is a huge amount of capital expenditure. I want both plans trained in on climate change and the UN convention, both of which demand new thinking from local authorities in a really big way. What would a huge leap forward look like on the national development plan and in local development plans?

The Community Participation (Disability) (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill has been hanging around forever and has never moved forward. If the witnesses were to pick one unexpected or other element, something that is missing from the Bill, what would they add to it? I am looking to what is coming through.

I thank Mr. Dolan, and again, I thank Deputy Canney, who has facilitated me jumping his place in the conversation.