Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats)
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I thank the witnesses for being here and welcome everybody in the Gallery. Today marks international day for persons with disabilities, which aims to promote understanding of disability issues and support the dignity, rights and well-being of disabled people. It is timely that we discuss inclusive participation in public and political life today because so many of the issues we look at relate to disabled people being excluded from decision-making processes. Several articles of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities guarantee the right to participate in political life and agency over one's own life but, unfortunately, the Government is simultaneously pushing through the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) (Amendment) Bill 2022, which will put disabled people's capacity, and that of many older people, under even greater scrutiny, as demonstrated by the use of the functional test of mental capacity, which is contrary to the rights in the convention.

I thank the witnesses for the points they have raised and for highlighting the obstacles and all of those things. Will they elaborate on some of them? If there is not time to answer all the questions, where possible a reply sent in afterwards would be great. The right to vote is something we all take for granted, especially being able to access polling stations. The witnesses' statements have reminded all of us this is often not the case for disabled people, for whom the right is not available.

Ms Costello outlined the multiple barriers people face and highlighted the importance of the accessible voting checklist from 2015 from the NDA. We have had several elections and referendums since it was published so will she outline her impressions of levels of compliance with it? Mr. Clarke suggested mechanisms and technical aids in place in other jurisdictions. How did they come about? What can we learn from them? Do we need to put accessible measures on a statutory footing? It seems the current system is not working properly and perhaps the law needs to spell out what the right to vote means in practice.

There is significant under-representation of disabled people in decision-making processes, in terms of public representatives, senior and managerial levels in State bodies and private companies. Article 4 of the convention requires the State to consult closely and actively involve disabled people in development and implementation of legislation and policies. The State is failing to meet that obligation. Will the witnesses give a sense of the mechanisms or approaches useful to achieving this? How can and should the State engage more with DPOs and disabled people?

The Disability Stakeholder Group mentioned in its opening statement the need for a fund to level the playing field for people to engage in political campaigns where they face additional impairment-related costs. Could any of the witnesses elaborate on the importance of that?

The group also called for disabled people to be able to access additional personal assistant supports, where necessary, to support their involvement in politics. The importance of personal assistants is continuously raised by so many different witnesses at this committee. Why would that support be important in terms of political engagement?