Fiona O'Loughlin (Fianna Fail)
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I have been blown away by the presentation from Ms Gallagher. I thank her for sharing all about her life with us. It is something that we are all sensitive about. We need and rely on people like her and family members to talk about personal and sensitive issues in their lives in order that people have an understanding of what it is like to live with a disability. I am conscious of that. I have a brother at home who is my beating heart in many ways and the heart of our family. Cathal is 46 and has Down's syndrome. I am always careful. I want to be conscious of his privacy and his dignity in anything that I say. It gives me a different and more understanding perspective of the challenges that face people living with a disability.

I was quite surprised by the report the National Disability Authority, NDA, did in 2017. Some 46% of respondents agreed that people with all types of disability can participate fully in life. In one way, it is good that there is that positivity that barriers are broken down in the minds and hearts of people and they want to feel that those with disability can participate fully in life. However, when we then look at all the statistics relating to employment opportunities, education opportunities and how people can live their life with dignity, choice and autonomy, that is certainly not the case.

Ms Gallagher spoke about how she was told she was lucky to be able to get 11 PA hours. That is shocking. First, it should not be a question of luck. Second, it is quite condescending to say that.

It is condescending to say that someone is lucky to have 11 hours. That is completely the wrong attitude to have. Even when talking about public transport, I know Cathal has to rely entirely on family members to be able to have any type of a social life or to get to work. While accessible public transport is important for those who live in cities and towns, we live in a rural area which has no access to any type of transport, yet people rely completely on it. The Local Link in some areas is doing good work but we need to do far more. I did some work for the Special Olympics. Athletes trying to get to training and to go to social events were at a significant disadvantage and were completely dependent on people.

I have one or two questions. It is interesting to see the research from Australia about its campaign, Every Australian Counts, where people like Ms Gallagher spoke in a very personal way. That is not always easy but these accounts are important and resonate with people. The Australian people, as a body, agreed to pay an extra 0.5% in tax to enable people with disabilities to live with dignity and have those choices. That is interesting. I would like to know Ms Gallagher's opinion on that. It could be something that we could do in Ireland.

I thank Ms Gallagher for the invitation to the conference on 23 February. I would certainly like to attend.

My other question is for Family Carers Ireland. I completely agree with what its representatives said. The women's caucus has undertaken research on a new charter for carers. We hope to have that within the next month or so and have a debate in both Houses of the Oireachtas about how we support family carers because that is all-important. I would be interested in hearing about the cost of caring, other key issues that family carers experience, recommendations that they would make, and their perspective on how carers meet their obligations as decision supporters under the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act. I would be interested in the response to those questions.