Pauline Tully (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome our guests. A census is carried out every five years. Significant resources go into the census. The purpose is to plan for the future. The CSO has a great deal of comprehensive information and breaks it down. More needs to be done in respect of disability and disaggregating the information in that regard, but I do not feel as though the information is used as it should be. If it were, would there be a housing crisis and a health crisis? Should these data not indicate that our population is increasing and that there will be a requirement for more housing? There is a housing crisis, but there is also an ongoing crisis for disabled people in the context of housing within that crisis, and that has been the case for a lot longer than the current general housing crisis. Our guests from the CSO stated there are increasing demands from Departments and offices to work with them on the information, but is it being resourced to do that? Obviously, if there are increasing demands, there will be a need for increased resources.

One criticism of the most recent census related to the fact there were no autistim-specific questions. Is that something the CSO is going to address in the 2027 census? In doing so, is it consulting autistic people or their DPOs on expanding those questions? There was a mention earlier of holding another national disability survey, and perhaps it is time for that. The previous one was in 2006, which far predates the UNCRPD. How would we identify people to participate in that? It is an important question.

The Disability Act was mentioned. There are increasing calls for it to be reviewed, especially given the Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Act is being reviewed and the two should go hand in hand. Dr. Elliott, Ms Gibney or one of the members of the DPO Network might comment on where that is going and whether it is going to happen. Unfortunately, an indication has come from the Government that there is no intention of doing this, but it is vital.

Do our guests from the DPO Network have any examples of meaningful consultation that it or other DPOs are involved in with any Departments or organisations? A document, How to Conduct a Disability Impact Assessment, offers guidance to Departments. Do they use it? I find many Departments work in silos and do not consult sufficiently with disabled people or their representative organisations, namely, DPOs. There are a lot of data across a number of areas, including data on gender and sexual-based violence and its impact on disabled women, data on access to health screening and data on the number of prisoners who have intellectual disability or autism, but there are many areas there where we do not have the significant data we should have to plan for the future and make life better for all the people involved.