Ms Catherine Gallagher:

I will keep it brief. Covid is always on my brain, unfortunately, because of what I research. Covid is still very much with us but there will come a time where we will enter a post-Covid society and country. In times of crisis and after times of crisis, history tells us that it is an opportunity to lay down a new foundation of how we want to live, treat people and work. Even the fact that I am here tuning in remotely might not have been possible before.

We hear terms such as work-life balance. Disabled people have been calling for remote working for a very long time. It was only when everyone, overnight, was in a collective global crisis that accessibility was granted to everybody. I know there were challenges in an online world and it does not work for everybody but accessibility can benefit everyone and it is all our interest.

Independent Living Movement Ireland, ILMI, is an example of a cross-impairment DPO. I have known people in ILMI and other DPOs I am involved in for the past two or three years and I have no clue of what those friends' conditions are, because we talk of the collective experience of being disabled. I am physically disabled but I am not a wheelchair user. However, I often have concerns that would be similar to those a wheelchair user would experience. Similar points were made about acoustics and sound. As my impairment affects my balance, I find it harder to concentrate going through crowds when it is very loud or if it is too bright or too dark. With regard to supporting DPOs, it is important to have us involved at every stage of every process and mot just in the middle and not just at the end. We should be front and centre and, as Senator Clonan was saying, told from the beginning and involved from the brainstorming sessions.

There is a point that I make when it comes to engagement. A dialogic form of communication should be used whereby DPOs and ordinary private citizens in who might not be attached to an organisation are brought in to communicate and a safe, accessible and close environment is created where people feel that they can contribute. Disabled people are part of a community we can see has had a history of belonging, unfortunately, to the spiral of silence. This idea comes up in the social sciences of this idea there are multiple examples in that people identify with belonging to a community that has been oppressed and discriminated against and has not been listened to. There is a history there with disabled and autistic people. It is a history that hurts.

If I was to sit and think about it for long enough and how, unfortunately, parts of history are still with us, it would be incredibly upsetting. Disabled people and DPOs should be front and centre at every stage. It is not just about just. Disabled people should be hired. The members' should hire disabled people in their parties and areas of work. We should be hired.

I do not want to single out or vilify anyone or go on a witch-hunt but I see a considerable amount of information online published by political parties and politicians without captions or screenshots of budget information without alt text. Maybe if they had a disabled person on their team who had a qualification in communications, that person would be more than able to point that out and capable of pointing that out, without having to think about it for too long.

We are very much here. Of course there are difficulties with us entering the work force and that is a conversation for another day but we are very much here. Whether it is DPOs as organisations or disabled people as potential workers or collaborators, there is a talent pool. I always say is that if one has an organisation - not necessarily one that looks at disabled issues - or decides to create a communications or engineering organisation or business, having disabled people with qualifications in roles in communications, business, finance, education, sustainability and management in that organisation would put many people out of a job.

It involves being able to think outside the box. Unfortunately, based on my experience as an early career academic, I feel people do not see me as competition - not that I am a particularly combative personality. It is important to bear in mind that disabled people are part of the talent pool and if you are not tapping into disabled people, you are not tapping into the full complement of the talent pool.