Nem Kearns:

I want to follow-up on Mr. Kearns's point regarding disability equality training. I would also like to thank Deputy Tully for clearly and explicitly reaffirming the obligations of the CRPD at local and national levels. It is an area of extreme concern for our members. We support many of our members on local consultation through public consultations. They are not fully accessible. We are not in any way resourced. To date, DWI has not received any funding whatsoever. In fact, our members have put their hands in their own pockets to the tune of thousands of euro for childcare costs to travel costs to other costs in order to consult. We are one of the poorest sectors in society and to have that time and energy ultimately disregarded and no transparency or accountability is heartbreaking as well as frustrating.

On disability equality training - I fully support what Mr. Kearns said - this is an area of extreme concern to our community members. We have participated in and witnessed disability awareness training, including that delivered to national bodies and local governments, that contains incorrect information. As well as anything else, it contains dangerous, misleading and factually incorrect information. To be blunt and possibly undiplomatic, it is much worse for people to receive incorrect training than no training at all. It is of utmost importance to us that disabled people are front and centre of developing and delivering that training. It is of no use to our community when harmful stereotypes and misinformation are perpetuated and the people we are then speaking to are coming from a place of incorrect information about us and everything we say being framed by that. That may be a surprise to committee members but it is quite common and urgently needs to be addressed.