Dr. Aoife Price:

The point the Deputy made about age-friendly measures is also relevant to disabled people. When things are made more accessible to one group, they become more accessible to everyone and that is an important point.

Another interesting point was made relating to that. It is around intersectionality and other marginalised communities. For example, Professor Pauline Cullen in Maynooth University did research into Travellers and elections and public life. There are a lot of parallels in that and similarly, in work done with migrant rights organisations and literature that has been developed to support candidates. One of the candidates, who was a disabled LGBT male, used the literature from the migrant rights organisation, even though he was not a migrant. The idea that what is good for one community is good for many is important.

Talking about resources, funding is a huge issue for disabled people and particularly so for those with intersectional identities. There is a huge additional cost to that. We have seen in other jurisdictions that resources were made available to disabled candidates. That is something we would like to see here, as we said in the recommendations. That is important.