Mary Seery Kearney (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I apologise for the noise. I am in my office and the bells for the Seanad are going off in the background. I wish to thank the witnesses sincerely for their contributions and submissions, as well as the opening statements. They are very impactful. I wish to raise a few points.

I found Mr. McGrath's statement most striking. What he described is not a one-day only event; it is not storytelling. It is about the real lived experience and how we can ensure that everyone is included and that we are not making assumptions. I read Mr. McGrath's opening statement and came away feeling that we should have invited him to attend the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage during the pre-legislative scrutiny of the Electoral Reform Bill 2020. He would have been a very powerful witness there too. I will follow up with a letter to that committee voicing my support for all that I have heard from Mr. McGrath today. Perhaps, with his permission, I will include his opening statement. We need to take on the challenge of accessibility of information and ensuring manifestos and other such documents are available. I would welcome and appreciate any further comments Mr. McGrath may have on that.

To our friends representing the Irish Deaf Society, I would say that one of the very few positive things to come out of Covid was that every day, in the context of the delivery of information on Covid, we saw an ISL interpreter in front of us. That normalised for the presence of ISL interpreters for everybody. In fact, I miss them when they are not there now. I think we should be building on that. We have gotten used to it and have an expectation now. We have an expectation of things being translated into Irish; we should have an expectation of always having an ISL interpreter there. The representatives of the Irish Deaf Society have made very important points. I am also a member of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth. In that context, I would like to raise the point made by representatives of the Irish Deaf Society regarding co-ordination. I suggest that, as a committee, we should write to the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth to emphasise the points that have been raised the Irish Deaf Society today. I would like the witnesses to contribute to that letter by telling us what they would like us to include in it, highlighting the points they made to us in their opening statement. Similarly, we should write to the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Media, Tourism, Arts, Culture, Sport and the Gaeltacht to emphasise the need to look at the BAI. We should be using the voice of this committee. We should be listening to the witnesses and ensuring we do their bidding. They have given us an opening statement and a submission. We should act on that and write, accordingly. We should emphasise what the witnesses would like to say so that we are performing our duty of service to them.

In respect of the representatives of LEAP, I support the call for an "ordinary life" that was emphasised by Deputy Wynne. Othering is something that was best understood in the conversations around, and the reaction to, the opening, or not, of classes in the context of Covid. We saw it in recent weeks with NPHET information on self-isolation. The advice came out and I was very glad to see that the Minister of State, Deputy Madigan, held meetings the next day from which clarifications arose and are continuing are to arise. Another clarification was issued yesterday. Therefore, we must keep front and centre at all times the idea that we are not othering. I ask the witnesses to outline what they would like us to do to support that and to ensure we are doing that.

I noted that Ms Cassen initially referred to ASD units, then stated that the preferred terminology is now "classes". That highlighted an issue for me. I was hammered on social media when I used the term "ASD units" when I was beginning my advocacy work, particularly with the Minister of State, Deputy Madigan, on this issue. There is a fear of using the wrong terminology in a way that results in othering. How might we overcome that, provide a good service in listening to the witnesses and do what they tell us so that we are doing what we are supposed to be doing?