Martin Conway (Fine Gael)

I thank the witnesses. Huge progress has been made in this area in recent times but clearly a lot more progress needs to be made. I take the opportunity to acknowledge the huge work Deputy Carrigy has done over the last number of years on making the Houses of the Oireachtas an autistic-friendly Parliament and even the existence of this committee in the last term and again this term. When I was elected to the Oireachtas first in 2011, it was a very different place. I was the only elected person with a disability back then and compared with how it is now, it is a whole different place for a person with a disability.

On the specific work the witnesses do, I came to the meeting because I was interested in hearing more about the review mechanism that was in place, especially when it comes to the competence of the decision-makers in doing the necessary work. Where there are more than two decision-makers and there is a dispute between them, what is the process or the experience of conflict resolution?

Are all scenarios reviewed within a specific period? I have a concern about the people who are making the decisions on behalf of the person with a disability, in that the person with a disability may sometimes not have the wherewithal to know if they are being advocated for in an appropriate way. I would be interested to know more about the review mechanism. Have decisions been made to remove people from the decision-making methodology? I am interested in that because I have concerns it is not as robust as it should be.