Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein)
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I thank the panel for all the presentations. Each of them - Eliona, Derval, Una, Amy, Sarah and Nem - spoke about gender-based violence and that the instance of it is higher in women with disabilities. I was struck by what Nem said about there being a lot of evidence to suggest it is members of the family, people who are close to them or carers that this comes from. Obviously, there is a huge risk in anyone speaking out in those situations because they will obviously feel threatened, their children will get taken away or there will be repercussions within the family. Some families obviously have no supports and there is no one there. I just do not know how that is dealt with. Maybe they can give me an example of how that is dealt with.

There is also a situation where some women with intellectual disabilities have addiction problems.

How is that dealt with? We are all in favour of advocacy. Does the National Advocacy Service help people and guide them in certain ways? Women with disabilities have to put their hands in their pockets so often to pay for extras, and that puts massive pressure on anybody in that position. What problems does that create? There are multiple options when it comes to the way people look at things. Self-advocacy is, obviously, the best way, but advocacy in general is the way to move forward. Getting people to engage with self-advocacy is probably difficult in many cases. When people talk to the witnesses or the various other organisations, how do they respond? Are they passed on to other groups? Is there a guide whereby they move from, say, one organisation to another?