Michael Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Thank you. Ms Eileen Flynn is not able to attend in person this morning and she asked me to raise a few questions on her behalf. She works with the newly formed Joint Committee on Autism as well. She has been speaking to autistic people about their experiences and one of the things she has learned is that some of the sensory inputs others might not notice can actually be physically painful for autistic people. In fact many autistic people describe it as being like torture. In accessibility reviews of the prisons and other places of detention, have they been assessed for sensory accessibility? What screening procedures are in place within the justice system for neurodiversity, intellectual disability and people with other impairments who are vastly over-represented in prisons and face prejudice as witnesses or defendants at trials?

All our guests have talked about the lack of information on disability and the huge barriers to be overcome to make sure that people with disability have equal access to justice. What can we do immediately to improve the data collection and sharing between agencies involved in the justice system on disabilities? Why can the Garda public attitudes survey and the quarterly national household survey not start collecting and sharing useable information on disabilities immediately? Could the witnesses explain areas where they feel the revised Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act 2015 falls short of the standard set in the CRPD when it comes to people with disabilities' equal access to justice? One example of this is not going far enough when making sure disabled persons are accommodated on juries and still using substitute decision making instead of upholding all disability people's rights to supported decision making.

Those are Ms Flynn's comments. Can some of the witnesses reflect on them and comment?