Keira Keogh (Mayo, Fine Gael)

Good morning and I thank everyone for being here. I join Senator Clonan in saying that, 20 years ago when I started out in this field - I worked mainly with neurodiverse students in early intervention, but also with many students with additional needs - there were not many places to look around. Even for some of my kids, it was difficult to access the groups engaging with Special Olympics Ireland. It is fantastic to see how far we have come and to see huge organisations like those of the witnesses' here today.

I commend Variety Ireland. I was with the organisation in Manulla Football Club with Mayo Autism Camp when it got its most recent trike down there, and Castlebar where the bee kind project was rolled out, which would be in my constituency. It is really doing amazing work.

I might start with a question for all the witnesses. Acknowledging there has been huge improvement, we are at a stage where we need to start moving away from how, in some places, it is still seen as "nice to do" or "nice to have" an inclusive programme for people with additional needs within your club or facility, or there are many adapted areas or adapted camps. We need to try to get to a stage where it becomes a mainstream responsibility for all clubs to not think of disability as an afterthought.

I had a guy in my constituency clinic last week who was involved in road bowling and had been for his whole life. Like that, the club used to do road bowling and then it started to do a side day for people with disabilities. To fully integrate, the club then started running competitions where the teams were completely adapted. You have able and disabled people on the same team, both performing to the best of their ability, which is then full integration.

How do the witnesses see us moving forward in that mindset of trying to get to full accessibility and integration where disabled people are seen as fully part of the club and not just something that the club is doing to be inclusive or that is nice to do? We might start with Sport Ireland.