Mr. Art O'Leary:

Míle buíochas, a Chathaoirligh, as ucht an chuiridh a bheith ag an gcoiste don chruinniú tábhachtach seo. It is a great pleasure to be before the committee again. This committee was the very first Oireachtas committee an coimisiún appeared before following our establishment, and we are keen to maintain a strong connection to its work programme throughout this Legislature. When I last met the committee in October 2023, we had just completed a constituency review but were yet to have two referendums, local elections, European Parliament elections, the Limerick mayoral election, the general election and, most recently, the Seanad election. Through each one of those campaigns, and the casting of more than 9 million individual ballots, we have focused firmly on accessibility and the need for disabled people to be able to fully vindicate their rights to equal participation in political and public life as set out under Article 29 of the UNCRPD. Today I wish to re-emphasise a simple but powerful truth: democracy is only truly representative when it includes everyone. That means ensuring people with disabilities are not just counted but heard. Many people with disabilities face barriers to participation and voting, whether physical, informational, attitudinal or systemic. These obstacles do not just deny individuals their rights; they weaken our democracy. Voting is not just a civic duty; it is a way to shape the systems that directly affect people's lives: transport, housing, healthcare and education. Disabled people must have a say in those decisions - not just as an afterthought but as active participants. When accessibility is built into every stage of the electoral process, from enrolment to casting a ballot, we uphold not only the right to vote but the dignity and agency of every citizen. True inclusion means accessible polling places, plain-language materials, assistive technology and respectful attitudes. It means ensuring that all people's needs are supported, not excluded.

An coimisiún has now published four sets of post-electoral event reviews for the national votes in March, June and November of 2024 and, most recently, the Seanad elections of this year, and a golden thread running through each of them has been the consistent focus on accessibility. During our observation, an coimisiún has witnessed improvements in election administration and infrastructure and a genuine effort to improve the accessibility of certain polling stations, and for that we acknowledge the work of returning officers and polling staff. As we head towards the presidential election this autumn, however, significant challenges remain.

Our review of November's general election was published in May with eight new recommendations, several of which focused on accessibility. The general election PEER saw an coimisiún extending the scope of analysis from the accessibility of polling stations primarily observed through visits on polling day to a broader "seeing is understanding" approach, centred on disabled people's lived experiences. For the first time, we accompanied electors with varying disabilities being supported by the Irish Wheelchair Association as they went to vote in polling stations across the Belmullet Peninsula in Mayo. These visits formed the basis of a case study featured in the PEER report itself. We have focused significant attention on the situation facing people applying for a postal vote because of illness or disability. This cohort of people must pay charges to get the certification needed to access their postal vote. Looking at this from a rights-based perspective, particularly in the context of the CRPD, we have recommended to the Government the need to waive these charges as a matter of priority. If the health of our democracy is partly measured in turnout, we must make voting as easy, as accessible and as welcoming as possible within the laws which protect the integrity of our ballots.

Work is now under way on an coimisiún's education and public engagement strategy. Last week, we held the first working group of members representing groups who experience barriers. This group comprised those with a lived experience and representatives from groups and organisations whose clients and customers face barriers in many aspects of their lives, not least in their ability to exercise their democratic right. I hope to publish our strategy and action plan before the end of this year.

Finally, I wish to say a quick word on a few elements of our work which are about enabling access to information about voting and democratic participation. Actor Conor O'Donnell, who works with Down Syndrome Ireland, starred in our "How to Vote" TV ads. We distributed easy-to-read guides to voting and voter registration. My colleague Mr. Dawson has copies of our easy-to-read guide for the presidential election campaign with us. We will circulate them to the members. We ensured that our advertising and social media posts use accessibility features as standard. We developed our publications from universal design principles and ensured that our website is easily navigable and holds digital inclusion at its core. Our research programme sees us integrating the views and perspectives of disabled people into all aspects of our research. Whether it is ballot paper design and the accessibility of ballot papers for voters with disabilities, the potential impacts of widening our forms of voting such as greater use of postal voting, or understanding the benefits which the use of election posters offers those with an intellectual or learning disability, our research must be thorough and inclusive to ensure that our final recommendations solve problems for voters and do not create new ones.

In October 2023, I told the members of this committee of An Coimisiún Toghcháin's determination to be a part of a rights-based approach to identifying and clearing barriers to democratic access and participation. That determination remains intrinsic to our work and our functions and, in the 29 months since we began our work, I hope that through our actions and our policy interventions An Coimisiún Toghcháin is recognised by disabled people and their representatives to be focused on securing equality of access to our democracy. In short, voting must be easy, equal and empowering for everyone, because when people with disabilities vote and are represented, our democracy becomes stronger, fairer and more reflective of the society we all share.