Brian Leddin (Limerick City, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I will be as brief as I can as I have to speak in the Dáil shortly. I have been truly blown away by what I have heard this morning from our guests. There are so many things we could get into and we could probably spend a full session on any one issue. We might discuss that afterwards. I thank the guests for coming in. I congratulate them on their appearance on "Prime Time", which I have not seen, but I will look back on. I congratulate Niamh on her excellent junior certificate results as well.

I will start by saying there was a level of despondency when Padraic spoke. He said that nothing changes and that he considered getting into politics in the past and then felt there was no point. As somebody who has a campaigning background, albeit in another area, I would say absolutely do get into politics. I would encourage him and everybody to consider it because notwithstanding that change is slow and difficult, it is only achieved by politics. I would urge him to reconsider his thoughts on that. Who knows? He might be on the other side of the room in a few years' time and he might have some more influence than he currently has to make the kinds of changes he passionately believes are necessary in our society. I encourage him to listen to Niamh when she said nothing is impossible. I would certainly agree. All change is difficult but it does start with campaigning and doing what he is doing today, and getting into politics is something that should be considered.

As I said, my background is in transport campaigning, believe it or not. There is, therefore, overlap here. I would certainly like to discuss in detail some of these issues with the witnesses, maybe offline, because I have some knowledge of this area. One particular side of transport, which might be seen as very much the preserve of people who are more able-bodied, is the delivery of walking and cycling infrastructure. I will tell a little story, however. I was travelling in the Netherlands a number of years ago with my partner and we ended up staying with a man who was severely disabled. He lived in an apartment that had universal access. I was quite amazed by his ability to get around his home given the disability he had. It somewhat opened my eyes to the needs of people like him. Then, as I was travelling around the Netherlands, I realised that I saw so many more people who have disabilities than I would see back home in Ireland and I wondered why that was. I started to realise that the walking and cycling infrastructure was helping the people with mobility disabilities particularly. When there are safe, connected, segregated networks, they work for the able-bodied community but they work for people who are in wheelchairs and use other mobility devices as well. What I do not hear in Ireland is the disability campaign groups or activists calling for this kind of infrastructure. There is much money available for it but I am not hearing their voices. That might be down to me, but their voices are incredibly important in this debate.

It is absolutely objectionable that Irish people are locked in their homes simply because there is not sufficient infrastructure in our towns and cities, and between them, to enable people to get around independently. That is absolutely a stain on our society. I would like the advocates to be heard more prominently in the debate. If they have anything to say on that particular issue in the time remaining, I would appreciate hearing it. It is linked to Deputy Tully's point that the employment rate of people with disabilities in Ireland is one of the lowest in Europe. There is a link between employment and mobility. If people cannot get around easily, it is much harder for them to go to work.

I was interested in the point Dylan made about the lack of accessible one-bedroom apartments. Is the issue specifically about availability of one-bedroom apartments? I acknowledge Ciarán's point that not everybody will necessarily need a one-bedroom home. People might have a carer, for example, which will require two bedrooms. Is the issue the size of apartments or the lack of universal access? My understanding was that the building regulations require all new buildings to have universal access. Will the witnesses clarify that point?

I have been listening intently but did not hear mention so far of dog fouling and how it impacts on people with wheelchairs. A young woman in Limerick contacted me about this and I did my best to help. Fundamentally, however, the local authority was not taking the issue of dog fouling on footpaths seriously. It was impacting hugely on this young woman's life. Her wheelchair would go through the excrement and it would get on the wheels and then on her hands. It was absolutely horrible that she had to endure this situation so frequently. My impression at the time was that the local authority simply was not taking the issue seriously and was not looking at it from the point of view of people in wheelchairs. I acknowledge Ciarán's call for the appointment of a director with specific disability expertise to the NTA. It is unconscionable that there is not a disability officer in every local authority in the country. If there were such people informing the discussions happening in the councils up and down the country, there would be much better decision-making by the executive and staff in local authorities and, on the political side, better debate by councillors.

I am happy to talk to any of our guests offline. Many issues have been raised today and we could have a full session on any one of them. I thank the witnesses.