Ms Joanne Condon:

I do not want to make general statements because pockets of people are absolutely supportive of everything we have discussed this morning. They recognise people's rights and want to uphold them. We do experience resistance in the system. We would love to do ourselves out of a job as an advocacy service and not be needed. Unfortunately, that will not happen because of the level of barriers people are facing. That is not to negate the resourcing difficulties, the challenges people face in staffing and resources at every level across the system. We are not naive to them and do not ignore them, but they all create a system that is self-propelling in the sense that it is very difficult to go against the grain. Mr. Alford has articulated the level of resistance he experienced to his wish to live independently. That is the classic experience we have in our casework: people coming up against barrier after barrier, attitudes that are not helpful, and paternalistic-type attitudes whereby people frame it as the need for care and services rather than, as Ms McDonagh has highlighted, the need to live an ordinary life and do all the things we all enjoy as part of life. The system is very complex to navigate. It does not afford people that individualised approach to be able to say what would work for them in their unique set of circumstances. Everyone is different.

We have been involved in some of the ongoing work on the implementation of the Ombudsman's report, Wasted Lives. Some of the project work in that regard is really good to see because the approach is to meet people one on one. Their unique sets of needs and wants are being understood and matched with what is realistically achievable within our budget. Even being listened to and being able to have an input and make decisions to guide the planning are huge for people. This does not often happen. Very often, people are just ignored. Our experience is that those with a disability at the centre of decision-making can often be the very last to find out what decisions have been made.