Mr. Damien Walsh:

I again point out that the Disability Act needs to be reviewed. Section 10(2)(b) of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission Act 2014 provides for IHREC to review not only pending legislation, but also existing legislation from an equality and human rights perspective. We can admit that the Disability Act, particularly sections 8 and 9, does not work. We now have this situation where we have extensive waiting lists. To go back to Deputy Keogh's question, we are almost asking which we prioritise.

We also need to reflect on this: disabled children become disabled adults. We need to create a conversation where disabled adults are empowered through their DPOs to inform that policy perspective. I know that, being accountable to our members, language such as "permanently damaged" is being used but we need to be talking about systems and support. Nobody is damaged. We need to talk about the opportunities to be involved in education and in our communities. We need to be careful. The Disability Act takes a medicalised approach. It even uses the term, in respect of assessment of need, "to ameliorate the disability." It is going back to cure and care. It is totally outdated.

What are we assessing here? When the Act was raised at the forum on disabilities - disabled people had issues even then around the assessment of need - we said this should be about transition points. What are the supports young disabled people will need when they go into and come out of education? It is about those supports as opposed to the real danger of driving clinical assessment at an early age, where what is said is, "This is who you are now". That ignores the fact, when we talk to disabled adults, that the opportunities are there when the systems are put in place. That is unlike what the Act stated 20 years ago, which stated they could not be employed and could not participate in social and cultural life. They can and do but it is about empowering and enabling that participation, not going back to putting people into a clinical diagnostic box.