Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the guests. Listening to them, I learned about the problems we face regarding the employment of people with disabilities, including self-employment and entrepreneurship. All the challenges faced are massive. Various challenges are faced depending on a person's disability.

Ignorance is an awful problem when it comes to dealing with people or Departments. I am very sure a certain amount of discrimination takes place as a result of it.

The question of how people weigh up what job a person is suitable for needs to be addressed. Proper training is required because training seems to be a major problem. People need to be more aware of that.

I am curious about the local enterprise offices. It was mentioned that they do not give enough support to people with disabilities. Maybe we could be given an insight into that.

I do not know the help that is available in, say, partnerships or the likes of SOLAS. I am not sure how well it goes down. Most people starting a business or otherwise go to the partnerships or SOLAS. Is there special help for people with disabilities, such as financial support when starting a business? I would like to hear the delegates' thoughts on that.

Reference was made to the reasonable accommodation fund. It plays a fair role in supporting people with disabilities and autistic people in securing employment. How is it co-ordinated? I am just not sure how it works.

Professor Cooney referred to the binary welfare system and the argument that a person must either work or not work. I agree with him that there is a huge gap that needs to be addressed. There cannot just be a choice between working and not working. There has to be a proper analysis of individual cases.

Reference was made to a network of entrepreneurs with disabilities. How would that be set up? Could I have an insight into the thinking in this regard? People could share their experiences if such a network could be set up. It would have great benefits.

Reference was also made to a panel of independent, impartial experts who would help to ensure all decisions made would be fair and impartial. Maybe Professor Cooney could give us an insight into how this would work.

Is there any appeals process that works for people who are treated unfairly or those affected by a decision that goes against them? Maybe we could be given an idea of how it works.

Mr. Hennessy gave us his lived experience. My God, he has had some battle. Fair play to him. All his attention has been on fighting over the partial capacity benefit all the time, making him unable to concentrate on what he has been trying to do, namely, photography. It is very disappointing to hear that he is constantly battling Departments and battling over funds and various other things. He ended up having to wind down his business. It is great to see that he is doing his best to highlight the issues for others and all the challenges he has had. It is never too late to continue. From what I can see, he is doing a great job. Long may it continue.