Pauline Tully (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I think that is all of our speakers for today. I thank everyone for coming in. The committee's job and responsibility are to oversee the implementation of the UNCRPD across all Departments and we continue to do that and try to hold the Government and Ministers to account. It is an ongoing battle but we will continue to do it. We would not be able to do it without insight from disabled people, the DPO Network and representative organisations like yourselves coming in and informing us and giving your insights. The witnesses spoke about people in prison. Many people in prison have either intellectual disabilities or mental health issues. That was brought to our attention before. I always make the argument that if resources were put into vulnerable families and into supporting children in the community from day one - these families can be easily be identified because there is often generational poverty - it would be much more beneficial, even from a cost-effective point of view. It would have a huge societal benefit as well, rather than people ending up in prison. The same point stands for people not getting the support they need if they have a disability or a mental health issue.

I want to commend the amount of work that is being done in advocating for people and supporting people with mental health issues and disabilities. I thank all the witnesses for coming here today, including Mr. McGrath, Ms Grogan, Ms Weedle, Ms Loughlin and Mr. Meany.