Dr. Amy Hassett:

I think Ms Kearns has said it. A really concrete thing from the committee that would be very helpful would be to get clarification from the Government as to who has responsibility here. We are one of the organisations on the ground working on this issue and we can communicate with people and make it very clear.

The other thing that came into my mind when Deputy Quaide was talking was one of the things that came up at our event. When we have that final report written, we will share it with the committee as it may be useful for its future work. We currently have a system whereby if people are in part-time or temporary employment or on fixed-term contracts, they very often have a real fear of putting their heads above the parapet to ask for reasonable accommodations. Getting back to what Ms Kearns said about coping not thriving and the adversarial system, it makes it difficult for disabled people to advocate for what they are entitled to by right.

What came up at our event was that those who are in permanent employment felt much more empowered to raise issues or problems, whereas those who were on temporary contracts could not do that. We need to look at how we can change the system so that it is not adversarial, and is easy and comfortable for disabled people to work with their employers to get those reasonable accommodations. A huge part of that is removing a lot of the bureaucracy that comes along with it and making it a little easier to access those supports.