Ms Jacqui Browne:

Following on from Ms Quigley's point, the agenda for today's meeting relates to how we develop the foundation of the true participation of DPOs rather than getting stuck into the nitty-gritty of specific matters. Participating in politics or participating in a forum like today's is the very foundation of democracy. In talking about Ireland being a truly democratic society, democracy demands that everyone is involved, including disabled people. As mentioned earlier, we are nowhere near the proportional representation of disabled people in Irish society vis-à-visthe number of disabled people in the population. I make that broad point.

I will give a specific example related directly to this committee. I did some research and my understanding is that this is the 37th meeting of the Joint Committee on Disability Matters. While the committee has done some fantastic work, having gone through all the witnesses who have appeared before the committee to date at all its 37 sessions, this is only the sixth session to which DPOs have been invited which is a very poor record on the committee's part. Before talking about what other people should be doing, we may need to look internally at our own practices. Committee members need to be mindful of that. There is nothing like a good example to illustrate a point as any parent will know from teaching their children. It is the same principle and the committee should consider it a bit more when planning agendas for future sessions and whom it invites - and includes or excludes as the case may be. Those are the critical points I would make.

Regarding capacity building, if the committee genuinely wants to see more participation and the development of DPOs in this country, we need to have ring-fenced funding. It is required under Article 33.3 of the convention and is further developed under general comment 7 which specifies that organisations of persons with disability should have appropriate resources, including access to independent and self-managed funding. We cannot be held with a tag line, "You can only use this funding for X, Y or Z - our way or no way". That is not the kind of funding we are looking for. We need funding that respects the work of DPOs to promote the voice of disabled people across Irish society.