Ms Catherine Naughton:

I thank the Deputy for her questions. I think she had the answer to her question on the vulnerability subgroup, which was dropped. We know that at each phase of the Covid-19 pandemic – the Deputy mentioned vaccination and education, but there were also the issues of returning to work and around the lifting of measures such as face mask wearing and everything such as that - that people with chronic illness, medical conditions, older people and people with disabilities also have pre-existing health conditions and were at high risk. There are more risks also as the pandemic reaches what we hope is its final stages. Maintenance of the subgroup would have been wise to continue at each stage.

On the response to Ukraine, this week there was a meeting called by the European Commission of the disability platform, which is the network that it set up for the implementation of the European disability strategy. This network includes the focal point for disability in the different European member states. It did an open call – this is a bit in response to the Deputy’s question on co-operation with DPOs – for members to be part of the committee. There are 14 different civil society organisations on the disability platform. There are DPOs as well as LGBTI representative organisations, AGE Platform Europe and service providing organisations. There are a range of stakeholders there who can have their say and be part of the discussions.

It was mainly the countries neighbouring Ukraine and the Baltic states that spoke about their response. In terms of good examples, Lithuania was able to say exactly how many people had come from Ukraine - how many women, how many children and how many people with disabilities. They did a very effective registration. They set up a working group with humanitarian organisations and included the national disability organisation as well. They had regular engagement with the humanitarian community in Ukraine and with the disability community. My impression from what they said is they were asking very specific questions about how they would recognise disability so people would have access to support. They had already organised how they would recognise the Ukrainian disability certificate and allow people access. Under the temporary protection directive, in principle, people arriving from Ukraine can access employment support services, education and so forth. However, it is not so straightforward with disability-related services and how each country will recognise disability. The example from Lithuania impressed me because they seemed to have collected the data very well and they had foreseen how they were going to provide disability-related support to people with disabilities who had arrived from Ukraine.

From the beginning, on 24 February, when the war escalated with the invasion, I have been very impressed by the response from DPOs in all of the countries. We have members in all of Ukraine’s neighbouring countries and many of them are very under-resourced, yet immediately stepped forward. They were locating people with disabilities who had crossed the border, they were trying to provide direct assistance and accommodation and they were reaching out with transport and assisted living. Without many resources, because of pure human solidarity, as we have seen in Ireland as well, the disability community in the neighbouring countries as well as across Europe has been helping out. Our members have been reaching out saying they have a place where they can receive people with disabilities, for example, in Spain, Italy and Portugal. They have been trying to facilitate people arriving to them so they can provide the Ukrainians with safe and secure places to stay while the war is going on in their country.

A good example of response is also the fact the European Union got its act together very quickly with the temporary protection directive and allowed people immediately to find safety in Europe under this legal measure. This is something that could have been activated in previous crises, such as the Syrian war, but it was not. At least here it was done. It shows that when the European Union acts together, it can provide this legal protection when it needs to and provide people with that safety they need during war.

The Deputy brought up the important issue of the fuel crisis. We know many people with disabilities who are using, for example, different kinds of assistive equipment, such as wheelchairs and so forth, use more energy at home. They are having to choose between buying food and paying their electricity and gas bills. While we have not done it yet and we are not ahead of this in the European Disability Forum, we need to discuss together how to make sure we do not lose track on climate goals while also ensuring we do not disproportionately punish people with disabilities with rising costs of fuel. This is something on which we need to have research, discussion and make sure, in those measures that need to be taken to protect our climate, we do not reinforce inequality. Unfortunately, I do not have the answer to this. However, it is something we need to make plans for without undermining climate action.