Mary Seery Kearney (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the participants. The submissions are eye-opening and challenging but correctly so. An intern called Eoin Sheehy has started in my office this week and I am very grateful for his perspective as I approached this meeting. Eoin is visually impaired and he is accompanied by his wonderful and amazing dog called Quest, which we all want to cuddle but cannot, as he is a working dog. The placement was a real challenge and education for us as an office and improved our understanding of even simple things. For example, making sure that Quest has a bowl of water and figuring out, when we walk through Leinster House, where does Quest go to the toilet. We have had to consider lots of things in order to ensure that Leinster House is accessible for someone working here let alone someone being a Member. The internship has been a great education. I wish to thank the head usher and ushers who have been extraordinary in assisting and facilitating us.

The most essential thing is the exercise of the franchise to vote, which people fought for a long time to attain. I take on that urging for a cross-party pledge and it is an issue that I have raised with my own party. My colleague, Senator Conway, has been very vocal about his experience as a person with a disability who is an elected Member of this House. When I was a candidate for the local elections, he spoke to a group of us about his experience. He told us that for him to canvass, he needs a driver and to have somebody with him. There are impediments for him canvassing that are beyond the usual ones and so canvassing must be carefully thought about. Fortunately, he has a team around him and a lot of us are very supportive of him. There are costs attendant to a disabled person canvassing and it is really important that we address such costs. I really take on board the fact that there are costs connected to disability and there are costs related to making sure we have people who are elected to office so we need to be aware. Senator Conway conducted a campaign to raise awareness about the supports that he receives. He has additional administrative support as a consequence of his disability but not everybody knows that when they are contemplating becoming a candidate.

I ask Mr. Clarke to highlight that and what he would advise candidates. This committee has been fantastic in championing greater accessibility and ensuring that we have a checklist to ensure that people can exercise their vote. We should very much take on board the online voting model in Estonia and the models that have been recommended to us. I commit to championing those and I know this committee will also.

To return to and highlight the matter of becoming a candidate, what more can we do? What other experiences can the representatives share with us?