Mr. Pat Clarke:

I will be quite brief. In relation to some of the earlier questions that were listed, one of the ways in which we can get meaningful engagement of people with disabilities is for a level of funding to be made available, and if it needs to be, specifically directed around the CRPD. That is about the only way that people will be in a position to engage.

One of the areas that might work in this regard is the recovery and resilience funding. As far as I am aware - I was not in a position to find it - Ireland has not yet published its plan for how that money will be spent and this could well form part of that overall plan.

There are a few other points mentioned earlier. Senator McGreehan mentioned the extra cost of disability. I am quite well aware of this. My son has Down's syndrome and the extra cost that we have to incur in terms of getting him in and out of his employment etc. is quite significant. This morning, I was at a meeting on the European Year of the Rail and it was about independent and spontaneous engagement with the rail system. One can put anything after "independent and spontaneous". The way it is structured at present in Ireland, particularly around the lack of additional funding to cover all these matters, means that independent and spontaneous actions by persons with disabilities are severely restricted and that needs to be addressed in the greater scheme of things.

Deputy Wynne mentioned a comprehensive employment strategy. I sit on the implementation group and when I finish here this afternoon, I go to a monitoring committee meeting of that. That is one of the areas that has been lacking or at least that was the first committee strategy that ever had its own monitoring committee. That is something that should be replicated in other strategies across the board within Ireland which will give it greater credence when it comes to reporting on the CRPD. I believe that should an approach to be made to the implementation monitoring group for its comprehensive employment strategy, I am sure that the chair of that committee and some of the members would be delighted to enlighten this committee as to the work and what the group has achieved in the recent past.

The main point is funding for the disability organisations in order to get meaningful engagement.