Ms Amy Hassett:

I will speak to all three of the Senator's questions. A lot of policies are flawed and there are a lot of omissions in policies because disabled people are not heard from. The example I gave to the committee the last time I appeared was that our most recent gender-based violence strategy includes no mention of disabled people other than a reference to Disabled Women Ireland being one of the bodies that held a consultation on the strategy. None of our recommendations and no measures relating to disabled women were included in that strategy, which will be in place for the next four or five years. The policies are clearly flawed as a result and the consequences are that the changes we need to ensure Ireland is CRPD compliant will just not happen in the timeframe required. We have to keep waiting for the next strategy and the next policy to start working on them. That is unbelievably frustrating for our organisation and others.

I will make one small point about advocacy to be super clear. Self-advocacy needs to be a support to ensuring an individualised approach for disabled people. Each person who is disabled will have different support needs and will need different reasonable accommodations. Ms Gjecaj spoke about a minimum standard of universal design and providing people with reasonable accommodations. The self-advocacy piece should be that last little bit on top to make sure those supports are tailored specifically to a person's situation. People should not have to be going for the basics. It is about getting that last little tweak to ensure full accessibility and that they are fully enabled to realise their rights under the CRPD across the board. Self-advocacy should be the last little bit of the puzzle.

As for how to bring about more accessible public consultation processes, Disabled Women Ireland is strongly in favour of two things. One is that the idea that the only time DPOs are consulted is as part of the public consultation has to go out the window. It has to disappear. We need to consult DPOs on a more regular basis because it is very difficult for us to get our views across in the format required and within the period of those public consultations. If we could meet the Department officials or the people involved as they are developing the consultation and as they review it on an ongoing basis and if we could bring our members and members of other DPOs in to sit down and have those conversations on a more regular basis, with appropriate reasonable accommodations and compensating disabled people for their time, that would be a much more accessible process. A very quick change, which would be of massive benefit, would be to ensure that, as part of public consultations, someone is given the responsibility to talk and actively consult with DPOs. In recent weeks, we have consulted the Department and asked questions about a consultation but have not had an answer to our emails. Aside from being frustrating, if we are not getting an answer to our emails, it limits our ability to participate in those consultations because we cannot go back to the Department and say, "You are asking this question; what does that mean?" or "You say this on the website; what does that mean?". Even if we just had a line of communication and a person we could speak to who is accessible by phone. We talk about the digital divide and the need to be able to communicate in multiple formats. For some people, picking up the phone is the most accessible way to communicate. For most public consultations, there is not phone number we can call. We have to do it via email and we have to wait until somebody answers, which is often too late. Having a person place could be done within a very short period and would help but as a longer term plan, we need more regular, ongoing consultation.