Mary Seery Kearney (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for their insightful statements to the committee. I raise this among Fine Gael Parliamentary Party members, in the Seanad, and in the context of wherever I can and we can say that for those who get access to schemes, the schemes are inadequate and not fit for purpose. Then we have the incredible cohort who do not get access to schemes at all. We have those two divisions. I am mindful that earlier this year, the disability advisory committee resigned en massein protests against the fact that it was discriminatory and unfit for purpose. I wanted to mention that in the context of our debate.

My thinking is heavily influenced by two individuals. One, Maureen McGovern who came before this committee in the context to access to public life, politics and participation. She is a disability activist in Chapelizod and Ballyfermot and she described her experience of sexual violence on leaving the house, of being imprisoned in her house because of the lack of the access to funding, and the ability to get out and about and the infrastructure of our footpaths, let alone having everything else that should flow from that.

My second big influencer, who is in my ear all of the time, is Gráinne Leach. She was in an accident in her early 20s and lost her arm. It is now a number of decades since then and she has never qualified for any scheme even though she is now experiencing significant disability in the arm she has relied on because it has been overused for years. This shows how inadequate the scheme is for the person who is fully qualified for it, and for those outside the remit of the scheme, they suffer dreadfully as a consequence. Underneath all of this, it is a horribly cruel irony that the exclusion of people and ending of schemes was as a result of a decision under the Equal Status Act. The irony of that is not lost on me.

Looking at where we are now, we have a transport group. I am disturbed to hear that witnesses have not had access to that yet. It is crucial and important that we make sure there is engagement with them and that we hear from them. As a committee, we can write and ask for that. What do the witnesses want us to do? Our committee is about articulating that. As individual party members, we are advocates within our own parties. What three things do witnesses want here and now? As we are coming up to budget time, what would they ask us to do immediately, if they had a wish list?