Mr. Pat Clarke:

To return to Senator Seery Kearney's intervention, there is a fund in Scotland that people with disabilities can access to assist them with the additional costs. That was referred back to Senator Conway and I had the same discussion with him. He sits on an advisory panel with the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, ODIHR, in that regard and we are advising people in that respect.

I agree with many of the points Deputy Ellis made. The European Disability Forum is organising the fifth European Parliament of Persons with Disabilities, which will take place around 20 May next year. Approximately 700 people with disabilities will, I hope, descend on the hemicycle in the European Parliament and take over all the seats. I attended the third and fourth years of the initiative and they were very powerful events. We tend to look for the assistance of MEPs in bringing over people to attend these sorts of events.

There is disability awareness training and I will send the link for it to Mairead, the clerk to the committee, after the meeting. It has just been launched. An e-learning course is available from the OSCE, targeted specifically at political parties. When I send on the link, members will be able to log in and see it.

Moreover, the OSCE has recommendations for election monitoring and there is a specific chapter within the OSCE on how election management has facilitated people with disabilities. There is a section on reporting from elections and that is available there.

To respond to Senator McGreehan, voting can be a family event. When my son, who has Down's syndrome, turned 18, he was rearing to go. We went to the polling station and as David was walking there, ahead of us and eager to go, I could see the returning officer looking at him and wondering what the hell he was doing there. He then saw me coming behind him, handed him the ballot paper and the rest is history. He has voted in every election for which he happened to be in the country over the years.

If there is anything I missed, members might come back to me on it.