Ms Fiona Weldon:

There was a lot to unpack there. It is like an onion, with many layers. The cost of disability can be as much as €60,000 and that figure comes from a Government report. A few weeks ago, the HSE stated openly that disabled people were better off in nursing homes than in a community. That was quite scary. The thinking among disabled people is that there is segregation and they are being put away. Why are disabled people not getting involved in their local communities? It is not because they do not want to but because they cannot do so. In Ireland we have one of the highest percentages of employment among disabled people. Only 30% of disabled people are in employment. Disabled women are less likely to go to college, work or earn the same amount as men. This comes into our intersectionality with our non-disabled peers. Our funders and the HSE are saying it is okay for disabled people to live in nursing homes and they are better off in them. That is damning, is it not? There is something in the ideology of looking after us that we need to have assigned specialised support in the form of a congregated setting, which is what a nursing home is.