Ms Joan Carthy:

I wish to go back on the statistics side of things. There is such a lack of statistics in regard to people with disabilities that we do not know how many wheelchair users there are in Ireland. It is not part of the census. If we can bring back from that to have an understanding of need, we do not have a general figure or statistic in regard to how many wheelchair users there are in Ireland.

To give a brief example, an individual we have come across has two children who have disabilities, one of whom is a wheelchair user. She is on a council list and was brought to one property which was not suitable. She was told there is another property for viewing and if she said "No" to it, she would be put at the bottom of the list. That second property is not actually wheelchair accessible. Even though the house does not meet her needs, she has been told she will be put at the bottom of the housing list. Obviously that has to go against the rights of a person with a disability, or anybody's rights, that they are shown something which does not suit their basic needs.