Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

As I have said in other committees, particularly the Joint Committee on Health, people with disabilities are not sick but they are labelled and put into a particular section because it makes it easier to tuck them away. These people have the exact same feelings and it is just as possible for them to develop an addiction and so on. I hate using the word "disability", but when talking to people who are less fortunate, you always see that they face greater barriers and are treated differently. Ms MacAndrew is right in what she said about medication. A number of years ago, we were spending approximately €10 million on cognitive therapy, play therapy and so on while spending more than €400 million on antidepressants. Is there a pathway to which you can point someone with a disability or who has been less fortunate in their education through which they can access services? Is there a simple one-, two- or three-step process? We hear people talking about online access and so on. That is fine if you can afford Internet services and a computer and if you know how to use them but a lot of these people have been left behind over the years. The Covid pandemic must have been absolutely desperate for them. I keep going back to the disabilities sector but, on a normal day, people with disabilities face challenges even getting on a bus or train or crossing the road at a traffic light. In our own town, we put in a footpath a few years ago. It won a European mobility award because we listened to the services users and then improved the footpath. What would be on the witnesses' wish list for changes to legislation that would make access to all the services they provide easier? That is my final question.