Dr. Áine Sperrin:

I go back to Senator Seery Kearney's issue around section 16 and the pre-conception possible parental capacity assessments. It ties in with what Ms Bonnie says about nearly being written off before being properly considered. The assessments do not look at the holistic point of view of what disabled parents can do or properly consider adjustments that can be made. Many of our oral histories in which we have spoken to disabled parents show that babies and kids who grow up with such parents adapt to them and things work for those families. It is about giving people an opportunity and being extremely careful, if there are assessments, that disability is not considered as a risk, at it currently is for existing children. We are concerned about how one could even anticipate a risk to a potential future child at pre-conception stages. How this assessment could be done and ensuring it is not ableist are important.