Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats)
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I thank everybody for coming in and for sharing their insights with us. As Senator Flynn mentioned, Ireland is the country in the EU with the lowest employment rate for people with disabilities. This is a disgrace and it is essential we address this situation by removing barriers and ensuring people, especially young people, can develop their skills and confidence to gain meaningful employment and independent living. To help us make recommendations, we must understand the issues involved and this session has been helpful in that regard.

As a farmer and someone who grew up on a farm and then worked for a long time in disability support services, I am especially delighted to hear from the representatives of Social Farming Ireland today. Agriculture can be an incredibly rewarding and empowering career, if people are supported in getting involved.

I have a few questions, and I will start with the witnesses from the Central Remedial Clinic. Mr. Troy spoke about the challenges encountered in finding work and in the recruitment process. Will he discuss the idea of having a campaign to change the way employers think about people with disabilities? Mr. Coates talked about his experience on a community employment, CE, scheme and how it was not beneficial. It is such a pity to hear that. Community employment schemes can be very positive for people. Without going into specifics, I would love to hear what suggestions Mr. Coates might have regarding improvements that could be made to the scheme. I ask Mr. Le Roux to share his insights into community employment schemes with us as well, if there is time. Several measures and changes were referred to that could help to increase the rate of participation in employment among people with disabilities. Are there any other changes and concrete measures this committee should know about?

The representatives from Social Farming Ireland have explained how the organisation helps people to be active, independent, valuable and visible. Could they give us more of a sense of the importance of this experience as an empowering process for the participants and as a learning opportunity for the wider community? I thank Mr. McManus for sharing his experience of working on a farm. Will he tell us in more detail how that worked and how the work helped him to feel more confident and to learn new skills? Also highlighted by the representatives of Social Farming Ireland was the importance of personalised budgets as a tool to allow people to make their own choices, supported by their own budgets. Could that aspect be elaborated on some more in respect of the importance of such personalised budgets and how they facilitate a more equitable and accessible approach in social farming? The point being made by Senator Flynn was this same point about financial independence. We are all working towards the same goal. It is good as well, and this was another of the points made by Senator Flynn, for all of us to challenge ourselves. It is particularly important for us as members of this committee to challenge a potentially ableist view or culture. This committee focuses on the rights of people with disabilities and the ratification of the UNCRPD, but as far as we are aware, none of the members of the committee has a disability him or herself. Therefore, it is important we challenge ourselves in the context of these views.

The point being made in this regard is something Mr. Coates and Mr. Redmond touched on, as well as Deputy Buckley. I refer to there being a rights-based approach and people having the right to employment and to financial independence. It is not up to organisations like Social Farming Ireland, Down Syndrome Ireland or any other group to act in this regard. It is the State that must ensure people can exercise the rights they should have under the UNCRPD, and that they would have if we ratified the optional protocol. Those rights will include the right to employment, to live independently and to financial independence. It has been highlighted, in an inadvertent way, that this is something we need to push for more. People should have the ability to realise those rights, but they do not now. Mr. Coates and Mr. Redmond touched on this aspect as well. When people try to seek more employment or more financial independence, then their payments are cut. This is what must really be addressed to ensure people’s rights to financial independence and employment are vindicated.