Ms Christabelle Feeney:

A big part of there not being longevity when people get in to do internships is that individuals have not been correctly utilised in the first place when they were brought in. Some organisations are excellent and then others are saying, "We are doing this, we are great for doing it and we all get a lovely feeling about it", as opposed to understanding that the person is coming in to do a job and we need to make sure it is meaningful for the person.

On the practicalities of providing reasonable accommodations in employment - leaving aside the funding - if the organisation does not have the correct process for that when they bring the person in what ends up being flagged are performance issues. They are not performance issues: the person has not been appropriately accommodated.

It is really good that we are having this conversation but I would encourage all the Departments as well. We have set it down in three or four different strategies that each Department and all public representatives would be provided with disability awareness training. That is a core positive action. It is very hard for people to write policy if they have not actually been educated on that.