Ms Emilie Conway:

I thank the committee for the opportunity to speak to members. I am an artist in every expression of the word - I sing, I dance, I paint, I write and I even act. I believe in art as a way of life. I also believe in the healing power of art, which it has done for me over and over.

Before this meeting, I had the idea of singing the first three lines of my presentation. If I could sum up what Ms Ó Brolcháin Carmody and I are asking for, it is not to be held back. We are constantly being held back. So---- (Ms Conway sang the following lines):

I am an award winning jazz artist, with many credits to my career.

Invited to perform internationally, I also sell out concerts locally.

Currently, I am mid a commission with the National Gallery

To respond to the landmark Mondrian exhibition musically.

Four years ago, I was an undercover disabled person. I was afraid to speak out for fear of losing opportunities and being treated differently. However, I could not help but notice the lack of diversity in the arts among artists and audiences. I began to wonder where were the other artists and the other people with disabilities like me. The stress of overcompensating was also taking its toll on my health. In order to bring about change, I realised that I had to start speaking up and to speak out and be honest about the challenges we faced as disabled people.

As Ms Ó Brolcháin Carmody pointed out, there are physical and systemic barriers that make it impossible for disabled people to contribute and participate sustainably, securely and legitimately in the artistic and cultural life of Ireland. We are constantly called the "vulnerable" and there are many charities to help us, but the paradox in this is that, if we help ourselves, we lose our supports. We are threatened and penalised for our achievements and successes with the withdrawal of the very supports that we counted on in the first place in order to succeed and achieve. Disability supports are eroded as soon as someone earns more than €140 per week. Actually, it is when he or she is assessed as earning more than €140. That distinction is important, as he or she might not really be earning that much.

On disincentives versus the right to self-determination, I have encountered the perception that benefits - they are not benefits, but supports, and people's lives depend on them - disincentivise people. I find this attitude deeply distressing and void of real understanding of disability. It is drenched in ableist privilege and shows no respect for the disabled person's right to self-determination. What about our right to self-determination? I do not view self-determination as a choice. I cannot stop being an artist, so it is not a choice. Having and dealing with a disability is not a choice. The State must support rather than thwart the self-determination of people with disabilities.

Regarding barriers to artist formation, development and sustainability, how does a disabled person become an artist? The barriers start in childhood. An average middle-income family will struggle to afford the additional cost of developing their child's artistic potential while also paying for the cost of the child's disability. A child with a disability is less likely to access art due to these financial barriers as well as physical barriers. These barriers become even more intransigent in adulthood to the extent that a disabled person, no matter how talented, cannot achieve his or her way into a better situation. This point is worth considering. We cannot achieve our way out of our situation.

With very few exceptions, scholarships, bursaries, commissions, awards and success of any kind are all assessed as means and lead to a reduction in or loss of supports. Would that not put a stop to your gallop? Our non-disabled peers can take up extra teaching work, run Fundit campaigns or whatever they like to fund their art, but we cannot because, if we do, it will be treated as means and our supports will be lost.

Although many free and subsidised courses are made available to disabled people by charities and the State to rehabilitate them back into work, none of these focuses on artistic development. People with disabilities are on their own if they want to be artists. A disabled artist could not be blamed for thinking that the State did not want him or her to be an artist or particularly want his or her work. When a disabled person is not allowed to use his or her strengths, it is not comparable to a non-disabled person's situation. It is not a life. Most of us disabled people have tried. I lied about my sight to get a job in a bookshop, and as soon as it was seen how close I went to money, I was swept off into the back room to peel price tags from second-hand books to prepare them for resale; it did wonders for my self-esteem. It is the use of our talents and strengths that give us an identity beyond limitations. When this is thwarted by the State's systems, we become socially and creatively invisible as human beings and defined by limitations.

If someone defies all of these obstacles and still becomes an artist-----