Ms Sin?ad Gibney:

I will respond briefly. I do not think anyone here can underestimate how difficult it is for people living in institutional or community settings who have disabilities and cannot access work and education in the same way as everybody else. Access to services and transport is also limited. The committee will hear about this from the representatives of the DPOs and from people with lived experience of disability when they are invited in. It is important to consider this type of situation and it is in this context that we are so careful around opening up an option like this. This is what we are talking about when we say it must be considered in conjunction with the provision of full social services. I say this because the reality now is that people in this situation are not able to access work, education and services in the same way as everyone else. In fact, if people have a disability, their ability to do so is drastically less.