Ms Lucianne Bird:

I will respond to some of those. I thank the Deputy for her questions and for her positive comments, which are very much appreciated. Our organisation works with many people with disabilities across the broadest plethora of services, including respite care for children and residential care. We offer a range of supports on the care side, including education, training, bridging and transitional programmes from school to vocational training. We provide supports in higher education for students, who have health challenges and are struggling, to keep them engaged in their higher education. We also have supports into employment, an area we are working on. We are involved in a very broad range of services.

We recognise the diversity and that each person has a different set of needs and challenges. There are differing demands on each of them and their families. Every day we hear the comments the Deputy made about the difficulties in the system. The people, families and students coming to access our services are exhausted from trying to work through the system. They are really challenged by having to go through the same process repeatedly to access basic services. I suppose that answers both questions to a degree.

A joined-up approach is needed. Most of the students attending educational settings who come to us need some level of support funded through the HSE. It is critical to get the Departments of Education and Health to speak to each other. The Department of Education cannot provide all the funding. Some funding needs to come from other Departments. We need cross-sectoral government interaction and intervention across Departments, recognising what is creating barriers for people to move on from their second level education to the next stage of their education and then into employment, and the kinds of supports that need to continue with them throughout their lives. No single Department can provide everything. We are clear on that and we constantly advocate for that.

Mr. Meere can speak eloquently about the disability passport.

I have a sister with a physical disability. She has worked all her life but she has had to repeatedly be approved for benefits on an ongoing basis. As Mr. Meere said, people do not lose the disability but they are constantly at risk of losing the benefits. If people have a disability passport, that says they have a disability and it should enable them to access a range of services without having to constantly reapply and make submissions for every small social protection accommodation or support that is available. Those are the key points. I hope that is starting to answer the Deputy's question. Maybe Mr. Meere would like to add to that.