Dr. Alison Harnett:

I thank Ms Mallon and I fully support that. We would welcome a review of the will and preference, particularly as it is associated with people who use day services and supports but who have expressed their will and preference not to have them delivered in the way that they were before COVID. That would be a very welcome step forward for those people in relation to their rights. I want to note a couple of positive things if I may. To come back to the question asked about consultation, at a national level we have developed some draft budgetary messages for the Government for 2025. Those are out at the moment for a network of advocacy organisations from among our federation members. There is time and space for people with lived experience to advise us on what the messages should be for the Government in terms of funding and resourcing for disability services in 2025.

In particular, I commend the work of the Inclusive Research Network, which is a network of peer-led research. It is quite unique and has been in a leadership position in Europe and has led to the establishment of other inclusive research networks in other countries. The Inclusive Research Network is supported by a number of organisations; by ourselves, Trinity College and some of the other colleges. It is a group of researchers who have lived experience of intellectual disability and similar to what Mr. Meany was speaking about, they have their committee structure and elect their secretary and their chair. It current secretary is Mr. Brian Donohoe, who works in our own offices. This committee have led the network's own research and its members decide what the research will be about. They carry out the research with support from academic researchers in universities and they publish their research. It is really important that we read and listen to the findings of that. The network has published a number of reports about topics such as living areas, relationships and sexuality. They have also published a report called Doctors and Us, in which they speak about the lived experience of people attending their GP and come up with concrete recommendations on how that can be improved.

If we are to offer an overall statement in terms of this debate, on behalf of all our members, I wish to express the point that while we are discussing resource difficulties and implications, it is really important that we are focusing on people as active citizens and as contributing members of society. Because there are fundamental questions about resources, as Ms Mallon noted we can get into a debate that is very funding focused but the people we support are fully active citizens. They will be voting next week, they attend college and they engage in employment as much as they can. We want to support the further development of that because we are in full employment in this country but many people with intellectual disabilities are not employed and they are a resource available to the country. It is important to celebrate and highlight that the people we are discussing have great agency, great skills and abilities, including doing their own research and consultation.