Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein)
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I thank the witnesses and welcome the members of the OWL. We are making progress, but slowly, which is sometimes frustrating. During elections, I have brought people with disabilities to polling stations and seen the problems they face. I understand how difficult it can be. Having to get permission to vote at another polling station is like being treated as a second-class citizen. It is annoying. Voting is a constitutional right. If someone cannot get into a polling booth - it should not happen in this day and age - there should be an alternative and no one should be left without a vote.

I was wondering about people having to get medical practitioners to sign their postal votes. It is insulting that someone has to chase up letters and so on just to be able to vote. How does this work in a hospital or nursing home? I am unsure, so perhaps one of the witnesses can explain.

The witnesses will have seen the problems with reaching quotas for female Dáil candidates. The quota is applicable to parties, but there are many Independent candidates. What are the witnesses' positions on Independent candidates? Asking people to stand as Independents is challenging whereas parties might agree to quotas or commit to supporting people with disabilities. I am delighted that 3 December will be the International Day of Persons with Disabilities. I hope that we will see many people, and parties in particular, pledging to support candidates with disabilities. The Northern Ireland Assembly will hold a disabled people's parliament on that day. Should we do something similar? It could be interesting.

Regarding disability awareness and equality training, many returning officers and polling staff at elections were not properly equipped. Will the witnesses comment on best practices in disability awareness training?

I noted from the European Parliament elections that 15% of the European population had disabilities compared with 13.5% of Ireland's population. I am curious about this. Is there actually a difference? Are we below that level? I found this strange, as I would have expected our level to be high. Perhaps this figure was just misquoted. Is the situation the same across Europe? Are there countries that promote people with disabilities positively?