Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It is not a competition, but it takes a lot of bravery for our guests to come to this House and tell their stories. The purpose of the meeting is to listen to our guests as experts, not for them to listen to us making recommendations. I might upset a few people here and I am known to speak out of turn at times. When I was a member of a previous committee on mental health, it was suggested that we bring in experts to hear their opinions or views. The witnesses were from the Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland or the College of Psychiatrists of Ireland. No offence to them, but I said that the best experts are the people who have lived experiences.

Some of the stories we have been told today are upsetting and also very heartwarming. It is very difficult for people to come in here and tell the truth about themselves, but it is a really powerful and strong thing. There are people outside of this House watching today who would not be aware of the issues. I suppose we are perceived to know everything as elected representatives, but we do not. I have learned so much today from the two sessions. It was heartbreaking to listen to stories of people losing their best friends because they were judged for being different, of the loneliness and isolation, and of not getting the assessments. That drives all of us bonkers.

As Deputy Ó Cathasaigh said, it is about us publishing a report. We are very different as a committee. We might come from different political backgrounds, but we leave the politics at the door because this is a rights-based issue. We certainly do not want to be responsible for another bad legacy when it is a lot easier to do the right thing, even though it seems to be more difficult to do the right thing in this country because we meet a lot of resistance. That resistance has to change. As the Cathaoirleach said, we are working collectively on the report. Some of the recommendations are already being looked at by the Bills Office. I have sat on other committees, but I have never seen a committee move so fast. It supports everyone in the group. We leave our crap outside the door when we come in to this committee, because it is personal. I think we are all on the same level of thinking, in that we need to do the right thing. I hope that at least we can leave this committee and say that we got something right. Let us be realistic. We are not going to work miracles and get everything right, but if we get that stone of change rolling again, everybody, including all those present and those who were here earlier, will have played a part in it. When you play as a team, you have strength, but you also have expertise when you have honesty.

From listening to our guests I note that while all the stories are very personal and different, many of the points are the same. They can learn about each other. They are thinking that it is not just them and it is not about isolation. Many people feel very isolated. Of course, people will be judged when they tell the truth. Unfortunately, in this country it is sometimes easier to lie and hide something than to tell the truth for fear that you will be judged, called names, pointed at, put in a corner or ignored. That is where we were going, and it has to change. It is 2023; we should not be here talking about this. We should have been investing and listening during the Celtic tiger. I do not think our guests realise the importance of them sitting here today. They are not witnesses; they are contributors to the possibility of making history. That is because they believe as much as we, as a committee, believe that change can happen. We are the members of the committee and we are the legislators. If we leave politics at the door and work together on this, we should be able to get it done. We can all go back to our own parties and tell them what has been happening and what we believe, and tell them about the people who have told their stories. We can work together on this and do something on what is a human rights-based issue, as I have said.

It is about equal opportunities. People should not be tagged as different. We all have feelings. If you are cut, you will bleed. Your colour, class, creed, religion, sexual orientation or gender does not matter. We all have feelings. We can work together on this. I have no problem saying, as a committee member, that it is one of the fastest moving, most powerful, very empathetic and at times emotional committees to sit on, because we are listening to people's personal stories. None of us is perfect. We have all gone through crap in life and we all make mistakes. I am pretty good at making mistakes. As they say, you make mistakes; mistakes to do not make you. It is very simple. You learn from them. As I said, we do not want to make the mistakes of the past and get things wrong. Hopefully, we can get these reports and recommendations onto the floor of the House and drive on the recommendations and what is in the legislation. Not everything is going to come out of it, but there is more than one way to skin a cat. When you are working as a team, you can drive it. I ask our guests to bear with us but to trust us. They trusted us today, in fairness, when they told their life stories. As I said, we are here because we genuinely care. This is not a party political broadcast for anybody here. Despite what some people outside of these walls might think, there is real solid and positive work going on here. It is work that all of us want to be proud of. In five years' time we might not even be in this House, but at least we might be able to say that there are no longer waiting lists for assessments of needs and there are fully staffed teams. We tend to normalise the bad stuff in life. We should be normalising the good news in life. Schools should not be having problems. It is about supports and resources, and keeping our best educated people here. We are exporting them at the moment, unfortunately. It is a huge plan, but it is a doable plan. As I said in respect of other issues, we should have the best country in the world. We have the best people, so why should we not have the best country in the world?