Pauline Tully (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for attending this meeting and telling us what their work is. I commend all of them and their organisations on the great work they have done and do. I was interested in asking Ms Hayes and Ms Finn to elaborate on how disabled people access their services and how their organisations identify and reach out to different employers or educators. When Mr. Kelly spoke about the interview board and how the people reacted to him it reminded me of the story a woman told me recently. She told me her son had just graduated with a master's degree in information technology and that when she was inquiring about work with an organisation, the people were very interested until she mentioned that her son is autistic. Suddenly they were not so interested. That brings us back to something Ms Finn said - that many of us have a limited understanding of disability because we have no connection. How do we address that? Many of the speakers mentioned inclusive education. I am very interested in how they envisage that because I know parents are always nervous, especially when their child progresses from primary to secondary school. If their child has additional needs, they may be even more nervous and sometimes choose to send their child to a special school rather than to a mainstream school. I wonder what the speakers' thoughts are on that. Would they see inclusive education as being mainstream with many additional supports for people with disabilities or people with Down's syndrome? I come from an educational background. I taught in a school which had many students with additional needs so we had a very inclusive environment but I know not all schools are like that. What are their thoughts on those questions?