Nem Kearns:

I thank the Deputy so much for his questions. There is quite a bit to cover so I might not be able to answer all of them in depth but I am happy to follow up so the Deputy should feel free to contact us if he would like more detail on any of those areas. I have made a few notes.

There is certainly less awareness of sexuality and relationships. Sex education is offered to disabled people at a far reduced rate. That has improved drastically and dramatically in recent years but there are generations, particularly of those living in institutional care, who have never been offered robust information on those areas of life. Traditionally, most institutions and charities have had a religious ethos and been tied to religious bodies. That can influence the information that is available to disabled people who are accessing information through those services. It is certainly something to look at. It has also led to an inequality of access to information regarding LGBTQ+ identities and sexuality. While it is great to see the updated sex education curriculum, it must be ensured that it is not delivered only in schools because not all disabled young people are in school settings. That is a big concern of ours.

It must be ensured that reaches everybody and that it includes robust information on relationships and consent rather than just sexuality because the Deputy is correct in saying that disabled people are targeted for abuse at far higher rates. The National Disability Authority, NDA, report in Ireland said disabled people are three times as likely to be targeted. We feel the international benchmark of four to five times as likely is probably a closer reflection of reality. That is for a number of reasons, many of them relating to social stigma and attitudes, the perception of disabled people as vulnerable, disbelief and barriers to reporting. Disabled people's bodily autonomy is also often completely denied and infringed upon from a very young age. They are not given adequate ways to express what is happening to them and are not even told what rights they have as regards people touching their bodies or infringing on their bodily autonomy. Disabled people definitely need to be brought into the delivery and development of anything like that. Sex education also rarely reflects disabled people's reality or contains any mention of disability and sexuality or how those two things can interact. Mainstream sex education is sometimes not all too relevant to people with specific impairments.

I am sorry; as I said, there is a lot here. I will try to do a whistle-stop tour through the questions so my colleagues can come in more robustly. On the Deputy's question on surviving abuse, I have personally spoken to dozens of women who have told us straight out that they are in abusive relationships and that they will stay in them because the alternative is having their children taken away from them, just because they are disabled. It is not because they are unfit parents or anything else but because of the perception, which is still very much embedded in society and therefore in the people who work in our systems, that disabled people are less able to parent.

So many disabled parents in this country live in fear of the State. Instead of feeling like the State has their backs and will support them, they are afraid of coming to the attention of any State service or agency. That is not how it should be and sadly it is common. I have not been able to find information on this in Ireland. I believe we cited an Australian report in our opening statement which shows approximately half of disabled women who reported domestic abuse had their children removed from their custody. This removal was not always permanent but it shows it is a very real and valid fear. I have spoken to women who have had their children taken away from them. I have even spoken to women whose partner has been found guilty in a court of law of abuse and the children have been placed in his care solely because he is not disabled and they are. It is a very real issue that I cannot stress enough. I really welcome this conversation and I hope it can lift the lid on the silence there has been on this issue to date.