Erin McGreehan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank all of the witnesses for their contributions. It is nice to see Ms Dempsey-Clifford, Dr. Rath and Ms Costello here. I have met them before on this issue, when they educated me on it. It is great to have them before the committee and to have this meeting broadcast to the country.

My first question is for Councillor Cronnelly. I am a former councillor. I got involved in politics because I wanted to advocate for people with disabilities. It was one the main reasons I put myself forward. My platform at that time was local issues and infrastructure. As a councillor, one's focus is more on infrastructure than on policy. I was really frustrated at council level because I felt that the issue of disabilities was not being taken seriously. There was a tick-box exercise in terms of passing motions on disability awareness training, access audit training and so on, with councillors who tabled motions, as I did, being congratulated on getting motions passed not but councils were not really listening. In the witnesses' experience how can we, at this level, ensure local authorities are implementing the UNCRPD, in terms of our public realm projects, infrastructure and how people interact in our communities, at ground level, which is where we all are?

Councillor Cronnelly mentioned putting up posters on poles. One of my chief election managers is visually impaired and so there were so many things that were not right for her as we went about our canvass. The list was endless, from the wrong tactile surfaces to bad footpaths and so on. I do not have time to go into it now. We learned so much on that canvass about the inequity out there. We are all equal but there is a great deal of inequity out there. At a council level, how can I help the witnesses to push that equity onto our streets for people who have a disability? It raises the bar for everybody in society. I do not believe that any family is not affected. Where I come from, 15% of the population have some sort of disability. I would love to hear from Councillor Cronnelly on those issues and I thank all of the witnesses for their earlier responses to many of the issues I had intended to raise.