Mr. John Dolan:

I appreciate the work my colleagues on the DSG have done on this, including Ms Costello, Mr. Delaney and Mr. Sinnott, and others who fed into it. Mr. Clarke is another colleague who is working in Ireland and at EU and international level. It is really lovely to see. I also welcome the members of the OWL training programme. I remember, as does Mr. Delaney, their predecessors. I saw one or two of them this morning who are now working in the Houses of the Oireachtas. That is sweet and that is important. It is as important as simply talking about someone getting into the Dáil because people have to start somewhere.

Senator Seery Kearney talked about her assistant, Eoin. People are working and doing internships in the Houses of the Oireachtas. Why can people not also be involved in internships in local authorities? In some ways, those bodies are the most immediate to where people live or whatever. In any and every way, people with disabilities should be visible and active as regards public representation. To go back to my time, and Mr. Delaney was of great assistance in this, we should get people with disabilities to speak before committees. It is not about people speaking for them but people with disabilities coming in and getting their own voice. That raises expectations. Eoin in Senator Seery Kearney's office might get a rush of blood and think he wants to be a public representative or Member of the Oireachtas, although he might be more sensible and decide not to be. We have to give people platforms. They have to be out on the pitch in one way or another. There are many different ways to do that.

I will make a couple more general points, if they are helpful. Voting is both public and private. It is private and that is where the democratic part of it is. It is an individual's single, solitary vote and nobody else's. It is not to be known by anybody else. That is the most magnificent thing about a democracy. There is literally nobody looking over your shoulder. The exercise of the vote and to be able to do so in public is itself a massive symbol. There are people who, for very practical reasons, cannot vote in person, such as members of the armed forces who are abroad or whatever, and use a postal vote. However, the idea of seeing people go to a public place to mark their paper, put it in the box and watch it all play out as it does over the following day or two is precious. It is not, therefore, good enough to say that people can vote from home. That cannot be the standard. People need to be assisted. When disabled people come to the Houses of the Oireachtas, and I hope more and more of it happens, to give testimony in front of a whole range of committees, they should be assisted in practical ways, in terms of their expenses or whatever, to be able to do that.

Ms Costello very sweetly mentioned that the local authority and EU elections are 18 months away. They will be five years and 18 months away if we do not do something within these 18 months to ensure very practical things are done. I mentioned Mr. Delaney. Deputy Phelan is also here. When he was the Minister of State at the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government, I remember him speaking in the Seanad on the issue of inaccessible polling stations, which is appalling.