Mr. Desmond Kenny:

I will take the first part. In a sense, it would be good to see what Mr. Harris has described regarding the expansion of the question on disability in the census. It would be better if it were included in that general disability framework rather than being something outside of it. We must see how the growth in the population of people who name themselves as disabled people will impact on the perception of our service delivery.

As for tokenistic consultation, most of the time - organisations will experience this as they grow older and their contacts expand - relationships are built with people like the Co-Chairman and Deputy Tully who know that we are there to provide our voice. However, that voice is sometimes not called on often enough. There is less of the tokenism than there used to be. We are not there just because we must be to tick a box. That does happen and Ms Gallagher can share her experiences of it but I am looking at the issue over decades. I have looked at the origin of many things and sometimes nuance is lost and things do not happen correctly. This can be seen in the enthusiasm to encourage cycling as a form of recreation and active mobility and the extent to which this is threatening the safety of elderly and vision-impaired people. For example, planners are often told that lights should be in place to tell cyclists when to stop where there are bus islands and floating bus stops at which you have to cross a cycle lane physically to board or get off a bus, relying on those cyclists to stop. However, it is all about the cyclists not stopping. That is going to be a danger. It has happened in other countries, and will probably happen here, that a human rights difficulty will arise that will have to be processed by the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission because people are being exposed to a danger. With regard to the physical built environment, Mr. Cawley is our policy officer and could enlighten the committee as to how we are consulted about the physical environment.