Tom Clonan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank our guests for attending and for all of the contributions thus far. My question comes from personal lived experience. I went on a personal journey as a parent and a carer. Due to the fact that my son had an unusual medical condition, we, as a family, did not belong to any grouping, as it were, for example, Down's syndrome or cerebral palsy. I only have knowledge of our own journey and the challenges that confronted my son. It is only since I was elected that I have become more aware of the broader concerns within our community. I have met a number of DPOs thus far. It is becoming clearer to me that those who lead and drive the DPOs, including the spokespersons and the people who are most visible, need to be from the disability community. How do we support the DPOs as a committee? How do we ensure that we get to the point - and this is something that I feel very passionate about - where these issues are not led by service providers? A representative of one of the DPOs told me that having the service providers represent the interests of disabled persons is like having employers' groups, such as IBEC, representing workers at the Labour Court. Workers do not want to be represented by employers' groups; they want to be represented by trade unions and have their own voices. That is my interpretation, by way of a clumsy analogy, insofar as I can read myself into the situation. How can we support DPOs to be front and centre? I know from some of my meetings that funding seems to be a core issue. There needs to be a great deal of financial support provided. I imagine that will be part of the response.

I congratulate Des Kenny on a great article in The Irish Times this week. I am just sorry that it was in the health section. It should have been in the main part of the newspaper. I also congratulate Catherine Gallagher and thank her for her contribution this morning.