Mr. Ciar?n Delaney:

On the leaving certificate, I apologise for my autistic bluntness, but the geniuses who work at the State Examinations Commission expect this young woman, Ms Kilcawley, to be proficient in using a word processor for her leaving certificate exams. That is two years from now. Quite a lot of the members have been in this House a long time. I have been using a laptop. The vast majority of us in here write unless we have been trained or we are very good typing with two or three fingers. That is not on. I ask the committee to get the SEC in here and ask its staff what in God's name they are playing at. The SEC's mantra is that students are supposed to do the work and show they have got the knowledge. I do not know whether it can be done in here, but if the examinations.iewebsite was put up on the screens in the room, members' jaws would hit the ground. It is appalling.

It was only as a result of a fluke meeting in Waterford where I was talking about the JAM card, for which I am an ambassador, that I happened to bump into Ms Kilcawley. She happened to mention there were issues. I went looking for the booklet but it was impossible to find. I found the booklet the SEC uses via a link provided on Google by another school and started digging. Those who know me - and I am sure this will bring a smile to Deputy Feighan's face - know when I get my teeth into something I just do not stop. Lo and behold, there was another booklet. This booklet had the details. I discovered not only that Ms Kilcawley was entitled to ten minutes per hour like everybody else but that she was also entitled to ten minutes per hour due to extenuating medical circumstances. That caused her time to jump by 40 minutes. She also had a double exam. You could not make this up, but the SEC wanted to cut her lunch break by 40 minutes, even though its own rules say lunch breaks can be extended. There are even issues with the current certificate exams. This may be irregular, but Ms Kilcawley is fully aware of them and she can explain what is going on. It is an absolute joke.

I should not have to be fighting for everyone. I should not have to get a call from Mr. Nelson telling me he is stuck because his wheelchair does not work. I made a phone call to the company, and the next thing Mr. Nelson tweeted a photograph of his wheelchair in work. Mr. Moran went along and it was basically the same thing. I should not have to do this. I have no problem with doing it but I should not have to. Deputy Ellis asked what politicians can do. They can stop using Twitter to decide the legislative agenda. I do not care who I offend with what I have said. The duty of Members of the Houses is to serve all people in this State equally. The Deputy and his party can do something simple on the optional protocol. Is anybody in here thinking of bringing in a Private Members' Bill to ratify it? God have mercy on anybody who voted against it because they would be annihilated. How about introducing a Private Members' Bill instead of foostering around? Members can put one in on basically any topic.

On the disability allowance, it is not that you might have to repay something.

If you go over that limit, everything is gone. You lose your disability allowance. You keep your medical card for three years and you keep your free travel for five years. After five years, like what Mr. Moran said about his chair, everything disappears. Come off the stage, lads.

EU legislation disables us. The EU has recently reimagined the legislation. There is no obligation on EU railways to make their facilities and services wheelchair accessible. There have been derogations. Since 2009, the National Transport Authority has had the legal power under section 13(2)(i) of the Public Transport Regulation Act to state the accessibility criteria for buses, as well as the emissions criteria. Is it not amazing that a Green Party Minister has made sure that everything has been done in respect of emissions but nothing has been done about accessibility?

I met and spoke to representatives of Volvo at a bus show. I berated them but they told me they only work to the specifications they are given. I can arrange for the committee to go over to Scarborough to meet a bus manufacturer, Alexander Dennis, the representatives of which I have spoken to. I arranged with Deputy O'Dowd to have an Oireachtas joint committee on access to public transport for people with disabilities. I ask this committee to go back to the Joint Committee on Transport to ask for a joint hearing to revisit the issue and see what progress has been made on the 16 points.

There are no changing room facilities in here. The Public Gallery in the Seanad cannot accommodate a wheelchair. People in wheelchairs must go into the Distinguished Visitors Gallery. Leinster House had hundreds of millions spent on it. Politicians can find money for everything. Is it not amazing that all the money could be found to respond to the pandemic and to house refugees fleeing the war in Ukraine? None of us would argue about that. Why could the same energy not be spent on taking care of us? There are 643,000 disabled people in the country. The expectation is that the number will rise to 800,000 in the next census. We need to consider that.

The other thing that Ministers have a happy knack of doing is hiding behind Deputy Rabbitte. She is the Minister of State with responsibility for disability, which is great. However, every other Minister should not be pawning off the issue. That is why I have said we should bring in representatives of all Departments and ask them have they disability-proofed their budgets and what they are doing. Under the 2005 Disability Act, there are sectoral plans but they are a select bunch. I ask Deputies Ellis and Tully to do us all a favour because I do not know who among the Government parties would be willing to do it. I ask them to table an amendment to the 2005 Disability Act requiring that every single Government Department produce a sectoral plan as to how people with disabilities are respected.

I also raise the carer's allowance. It is an absolute disgrace that a carer will not get funding because the payment is means tested. House adaptations are also means tested. When was the last time anyone looked at the figure of €30,000 in the context of construction inflation?

The solution is in the gift of the committee. I will work with any of the committee members. I am saying that publicly. I will work here free of charge. I will come up from Cork, as I have done in the past, as the Chair is aware. I will help the committee in whatever way I can to fix this broken system. It is frustrating that politicians can do so many things but around legislation, they seem to be Twitter-based.

I have a comment to make about autism. I should inform the committee that autism is apparently not a lifelong condition. When I initially approached the Department of Social Protection to avail of the disability allowance, I was told that my autism would not last longer than a year. Are they not great people?