Fiona O'Loughlin (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am conscious that I may have to leave before the end of the responses because I have the first Commencement matter in the House. I will listen back to the responses.

I thank the four witnesses. It was very humbling to listen to details of their experiences, which is essentially what we want to do. We want to try to identify the many challenges they have in terms of living their daily lives and see what recommendations we can put forward to try to help to support them. Today’s meeting is very useful in terms of shining a light on the invisible disabilities that are not all too obvious, and getting more information on the background of how the medical world treats them and how society treats them, as well as looking at the stigma and discrimination that most definitely is impacting daily on all of them.

There are a few common threads. The lack of effective communication between primary and secondary care is cited as a big barrier and is hugely important. There is also the fact chronic disease management is currently hospital-based as opposed to community-based. Having listened to Ms McGreehan talk about what it takes for her to go to hospital for her appointments, we can see that the day is fully impacted from her perspective, as well as the following days. I would be interested to hear from all of the witnesses how they feel the appropriate community care would help in their own situations.

There certainly seems to be a lack of joined-up thinking in terms of the different supports that are needed. I completely agree about the mobility grant.

With regard to the public realm, Ms McGreehan spoke about how inaccessible services can be and how many areas are not disability-proofed. I was shocked to listen to Ms Casserly say she is not entitled to a medical card, particularly given the fact Parkinson's is the fastest growing neurological disease and is expected to double. I have some friends who have Parkinson's and I know how it can impact people's lives.

I want to ask about filling the gap in terms of information around supports for people everywhere in the service industry, that is, within the Civil Service and public service, as well as in other areas, with regard to having the appropriate disability awareness in dealing with people with invisible diseases.