Ms Isolde Ó Brolcháin Carmody:

I will answer in respect of disabled artists. I thank the Senator for the question and for raising the issue of language and what it represents. I am sure the committee has heard plenty about the difference between the social model and the medical model. To summarise, the social model states we are disabled by the built, cultural and societal environment in which we have to operate, which does not take account of our needs. The medical model states the problem is with us as individuals and, therefore, the best procedure is to fix us as we are broken people. The supports for disabled people in this country are utterly based on the medical model. You have only to see how many of our supports come through the HSE and the Department of Health even when they have nothing whatsoever to do with medicine. In fact, often, a medical setting is one of the most ableist you will encounter because the medical model states we need to be fixed and if we are not fixable then what the hell are we doing in a hospital?

The Senator is correct that the nature of supports for disabled people needs to go around every Department. We are everywhere. Ms Conway and I have been presenting on these points as artists. We have attempted to engage with the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media and we are forever bounced back to the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth. That is a ghettoisation. It is saying that any issue we have, whether it is to do with our working life, our human rights or our legal capacity, will always be bounced back to what is essentially a junior ministerial position within a very broad-ranging Department.

The whole system really needs to be rebuilt from the ground up on a social model. As Ms Conway said, these are not benefits. They are fundamental supports that help to realise our fundamental human rights. They do not go far enough in doing that but that understanding needs to permeate every Department and every interaction we have with Departments.