Ms Marian Hennessy:

Mr. Kelly is just on a short break. He is back now. I can go first and Mr. Kelly can come in after me, if that is all right. I thank the Deputy. It is nice to see a Cork neighbour here today. She asked about how we change the low expectations and about cultural shifts. When we talk about supporting people with more significant or complex challenges and needs, perhaps the Government and this committee could think about running a media campaign. We all have the radio on in the car as we are going about our business. Perhaps we could have a television campaign that highlights people's abilities. We all learn from visual examples. A short clip on the television or radio could make a big difference. We do not often see people with more significant and complex abilities speaking on television or radio. That might be a way to move this forward.

Perhaps we could develop an advocacy campaign. We could dedicate a year to promote these issues, through the Government. The Deputy is right about the quotas in the public service. While there are quotas, there must be some way of educating or guiding people on how we can open up opportunities. I know from talking to people in the public service that there is a central recruitment process that must be gone through. While people in local offices are very interested in the whole area of employing somebody, they can be dictated to by policy or decisions that are made elsewhere. We have found that to be the case in the HSE. We have been working through several of the hospitals in Cork. Thankfully, things are opening up at the moment but it has taken almost three years to make progress in that area. We could look at the whole area of quotas and voluntary quotas. It would be important to encourage public services to reach out to the specialist services in their localities.

We should have sound pathways for people from secondary school onward. Some people might not go to third level colleges but would go into post-leaving certificate courses and attend education and training board courses. We could move away from the traditional adult services, specialist services and rehabilitative training that is there. Perhaps we could invest in new and innovative ways to do that. I know there are many such projects throughout the country. Pobal is compiling a report of the findings on the past three years of the Ability programme. That will make interesting reading. We should talk to Ms Walsh and members of her group around the country to get their feedback on what they have done in setting up alternative services.