Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank all the witnesses for their contributions this morning. In order to try to help matters, I will not be asking any questions, but I will make some comments. Based on what the witnesses have said this morning, a few things stand out as matters the committee should be pursuing. Universal income for people with disabilities is very important. We should have a support in place for people with disabilities, full stop. I have come across cases where when somebody got married, their spouse's income was taken into account and they lost their disability allowance. It is totally wrong and we need to put in place a universal disability payment that is ring-fenced regardless of a person's circumstances.

Regarding artists and musicians and the supports for disabled people who are self-employed, I was struck by the comment by, I think, Ms Conway that employers are given supports to take on people with disabilities, but self-employed people do not get supports to help themselves. That is another area that the committee should follow up on.

I have said this repeatedly. A person with a disability was either born with it or may have lost a limb but irrespective of the circumstances, as Councillor Gabe Cronnelly would say, the limb will not grow back. The blindness of someone who is blind from birth will not change unless something exceptional happens and if that happens, everybody will be happy. Therefore, why must a person prove every time that they are an amputee or are blind? There is a ritual whereby they have to prove all these things. They need to get all the letters from doctors etc. That is something we need to stop, if I can put it that bluntly.

I have learned about the anomalies with the blind pension this morning. I will do more research on it and will be guided by the experiences outlined this morning on that.

Regarding club funding, I know many clubs that do great work for disabilities. They do it because they get funding after which they put things in place. We should be doing more of it and it should be measured. It is not just about having a disabled parking space or a piece of equipment in the playground for a child. We need to have a bit more than that and we need to be able to measure the outcomes.

Regarding a percentage of public works funding going towards having facilities accessible for disabilities, we need to ensure we do not make that percentage something that deals with disabilities and that is all. Whether it is a road, a house, a school or whatever, we need to ensure that everything that is built is designed for universal access. Regardless of anything else, we need to do that.

I have had some dealings with the personal assistance service. We need to look at that because the personal assistance service is too inflexible. The Department's approach seems to be that people are doing something wrong and trying to con it out of something. We need to reverse that and take on board the witnesses' comments.

As the Chairman has said, everything the witnesses say is important to us because it informs us. I am delighted that Senator Conway joined the meeting this morning. The witnesses' input will help us, help the Minister and help the Department to make changes for the benefit of all. We need to continue with this. At a certain juncture we will need to make our submissions on this module and force it through as best we can. With the witnesses help we will do so. No doubt, we will be back to them again because they all have great insights and what they have said to us is very clear. I compliment them. As I have no questions, I will pass over to the other members. I have something to do at 12 noon and will be leaving the meeting but this is no disrespect to anybody. I thank the witnesses sincerely for their time and input this morning.