Ms Jacqui Browne:

To be honest, we addressed many of Deputy Murnane O'Connor's earlier on and throughout the meeting. Out of fairness, I do not want to repeat myself too much. Ms Cassidy outlined the current supports. There are money-based supports and then there are supports that we are meant to have. The problem is that these supports are not universal around the country. We highlighted geographic issues. We know that this is an issue generally, particularly with the health service in Ireland, that some barriers are often geographically based. Even if you have a medical card, and you are living in Kerry, it is difficult to access the same service in Dublin with your medical card because that is a community healthcare organisation, CHO, area. There are practical so-called "systemic bureaucratic" barriers as opposed to inherent ones.

In terms of the Deputy's question about whether we believe that we are accepted and identified as disabled people, absolutely and quite definitely, thalidomide survivors very much are disabled people. We are disabled people in the context of the social model of disability, which is that the societal and political legal framework is what disables us, but - to create the distinction, clarity and understanding - our impairments are based on being thalidomide survivors.

We all need to live with impairments but our disability derives from the way society interacts with us, including the State and its institutions. Those are the main comments and I do not want to repeat everything we said. We have described in some detail the unmet need, the lack of joined-up thinking and the lack of response to a very small group of unfortunate people in this country.