Ms Maria N? Fhlatharta:

I thank the Chair. Ms Hassett and I will be splitting the opening statement but I will start. Disabled Women Ireland is the national disabled person’s organisation, DPO, representing self-identified disabled women, girls, non-binary and gender non-conforming people in Ireland. Our members self-identify as disabled and we understand disability as a broad concept which includes physical, sensory, mental and intellectual impairments. DWI is an all-island organisation, with members located across 25 counties, living in both urban and rural areas. We welcome the opportunity to present today on the recommendations of the Citizens’ Assembly on Gender Equality.

We broadly support the recommendations of the citizens' assembly and seek to ensure that actions based on them are constructed in such a way as to not further disadvantage disabled women and to uphold the rights recognised in the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, UNCRPD, which Ireland ratified a few years ago. While we use the word "women" throughout our opening statement and will do so during questions later, this is only because data on gendered experiences of disability is lacking and we do not have figures on the experiences of other gender minority groupings, but we strongly support the citizens' assembly’s statement in its open letter that trans and non-binary people suffer from particular facets of inequality. At a time when trans people’s rights are facing unprecedented pushback on this island, we want to reiterate that non-binary identities are valid, trans women are women, trans rights are human rights and any deviation from that position fails to acknowledge or understand our equal dignity as humans. Disabled Women Ireland is nothing without our trans members. We should not have to say this, but the current climate is such that we can not speak on a feminist, equal future for Ireland without doing so. In our experience, any issue which disproportionately impacts on disabled women also impacts on disabled gender minority people to at least the same degree, but often to a greater degree.

First, we will speak on care recommendations 4 to 12. Overall, we support the recommendations made by the citizens' assembly in relation to care but wish to highlight a number of points essential to their being implemented in a manner which recognises the significant proportion of disabled people who are carers and which ensures the rights and agency of all disabled people are respected. We agree with the citizens' assembly's statement that we need to transform our models of care to ensure that our society values every person, but caution that specific measures must be identified and incorporated into any implementation which respect disabled people’s autonomy and ensures they can access any supports needed to exercise that autonomy.

In Ireland, 67% of disabled women are parents and disabled people are almost three times more likely to be carers than non-disabled people. In fact, 45% of family carers in Ireland are themselves disabled. Disabled people, and in particular disabled women, are responsible for a huge portion of caring work in Ireland. We need to acknowledge this and ensure they are better supported in this vital work. It is also important to acknowledge and respect the interdependence of care. Care is rarely a one-way street, and the systems we create need to reflect this.

When non-disabled people speak about care, it can often be in a paternalistic way that fails to consider that they themselves receive care support from those around them or in a way that fails to recognise that disabled people are often givers, and not only recipients, of care. For those of us who have relied on care, or have provided care, we know that these depictions of a one-way model of care are inaccurate at best.

We support the citizens' assembly’s recommendation that respite provision for carers should be improved but it is essential that we do not frame disabled people as burdens, a framing that plays a significant role in our dehumanisation. Indeed, disabled people themselves may also need a break from their families or careers, as we all do, and should be afforded the opportunity to have alternative experiences, build their own social networks and spend time away from their home environments. We want to be really clear that we do not want to see an increase in respite provision which results in disabled people being placed in institutions, but instead the expansion of such services in ways that include alternatives for those who want them.

We need to be creative and flexible in creating models that work for people on an individual basis, and some alternatives to institutional respite have already been used in Ireland. Examples of this are family home-sharing or respite budgets being provided directly to families have, in the past, enabled disabled people and their families to create systems which work for them. Better provision of in-home supports will make flexible, individualised alternatives much more possible and allow more freedom of choice.

We also do not fully support the language of recommendation 10, which focuses on choice of care and support, rather than fully acknowledging disabled people's right to choose their care or support arrangements, with the will and preferences of an individual at the centre of all such arrangements. The language used in this recommendation undermines the idea of equality for disabled people.

To say that disabled people should be able to participate as fully as possible in decisions about their own lives reflects neither the spirit nor the letter of the UNCRPD - specifically Articles 12 and 19 which we focus on particularly. Article 12 requires that disabled people enjoy legal capacity on the same basis as others and that they can access the support they need in exercising this legal capacity. This means disabled people are entitled to make all decisions about their own lives, and should be provided with any support needed to make these decisions. Article 19 states that disabled people are entitled to choose their place of residence, and as such, should have access to a range of support services of their choosing so as to enable them to live independently and be included in their communities on an equal basis with others. As the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities describes in the general comment on independent living in Article 19 " living independently means that individuals with disabilities are provided with all necessary means enabling them to exercise choice and control over their lives and make all decisions concerning their lives. Personal autonomy and self-determination is fundamental to independent living ...".

We are clear that support or care without choice is neither support nor care. Support cannot be imposed upon a person. We are clear that institutionalisation can happen in the home or in the community when the autonomy, will, and preference of a person is not respected. We agree that all-----