Mr. Damien Walshe:

As Ms Gaynor said, we must normalise disabled people. Having an impairment is part of the human condition. Great strides have been made in inclusion in mainstream education but without that fundamental support, we are saying this is as far as someone can go and we will not actually take our commitments seriously under the UNCRPD. We must actively resource the participation of disabled people in Irish society. I will give a clear example. With the emergence of ILMI and other DPOs, there is now a strong voice from disabled people, saying what they want. There was an absence of that for a long time. Service providers have colonised the space, claiming to speak on behalf of disabled people, which they have no authentic right to do. Only disabled persons' organisations have that right. There are 140 actions in the national disability inclusion strategy in the existing plan. How many references are there to a personal assistance service within that? There is not one single reference to one of the most fundamental systems that will give people control and choice. The committee, as allies, must keep this on the agenda. We recognise that the HSE is discussing setting up a working group to standardise assessment, define clearly what a personal assistance service is and work towards building a system that can be held to account and be invested in year-on-year. Every single local authority in this country - grassroots-level political support, led by our members - recognises that a personal assistance service is the fundamental right disabled people need to participate in all aspects of society. We know colleagues at a party level supported that, so we need to see it brought back in. We need to see how that system can be built first before it can be held to account. It is ad hoc, no one is responsible, yet in fairness, everyone is responsible if it has not been built properly.