Tom Clonan (Independent)
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I thank everybody for coming in.

What can I say to Ms Carthy about the wheelchair people on the plane? My son, who is a wheelchair user, and I have flown on different airlines and have had different experiences but I remember once being in Dublin Airport, intending to fly to Barcelona. I wheeled him up to the door of the aircraft and there was a bit of a kerfuffle. They had not arranged the assistance so I lifted Eoghan out of the chair, the two of us walked in together and sat in the first row, and then I went back to get his wheelchair. The cabin crew said she was sorry but you cannot exit the aircraft once you have entered it. I replied that I needed his wheelchair. She asked whether he would need that in Barcelona and Eoghan said, "Unless Jesus Christ is on board and performs a miracle at 37,000 ft, I will need it." One thing about Ms Carthy's story is, it shows that pilots do not know everything. They know almost everything but they do not know everything. There will come a day when the wheelchair people will be running the country, I hope, and others.

On a more serious note, and it is a question for everybody, I refer to the parliament for disabled persons in Europe. I note there was one in the Northern Ireland Assembly not long ago. Have we had a disabled parliament here in Oireachtas Éireann? I imagine that would be a good idea, as Mr. Dolan says, on two levels, namely, to promote the public participation of all of our citizens in our democratic institutions and to highlight the levels of access that are required to function fully in here.

Finally, on that note, I notice that there is an increasing number of interns with disabilities. There are actually both a number of people with visible disabilities among Senators and Deputies and quite a number of Deputies and Senators who have disabilities that are not visible. I have become aware of that over the past while. As I have stated previously, we as a committee should ask for a fully accessible changing place in Leinster House because we should be sending a signal to the rest of the country about how accessible we are. We should be providing leadership in that regard. If I could put that on the record, we as a committee could ask estates management or whoever that we do that without delay.

I congratulate An Coimisiún Toghcháin. It is a very busy electoral period. The constituency I represent will possibly require revision based on a Supreme Court decision.

I am on the Trinity panel, which has 75,000 registered voters. The average turnout is about 17% or 18%, which is shocking. I think of a place like Finglas, where I come from, which has a similar population of between 75,000 and 100,000. Imagine if they could vote for three Senators. You would hope the turnout would not be as low as 17% or 18%. I have heard one rumour that they might expand the Trinity constituency to include Dublin City University, DCU, and Technological University Dublin, TUD. I taught in TUD for 22 years and I have two degrees from DCU. I am just saying that, in terms of redrawing the constituency.

My son, Eoghan, was born on 7 February 2002. He turned 18 on 7 February 2020, on the eve of the general election. We got him up to Blackrock Garda station, and the gardaí were brilliant. They made a big fuss of him. They brought him in and formally identified him. This speaks again to what Mr. Dolan was saying about public participation and the whole civic experience. They were very serious. They formally identified him, and put him onto the supplementary register. They had the big stamp and a big ceremony. I should also say they gave him a lot of unsolicited political advice. He got to vote the next day. That is a wonderful thing, but so often disabled citizens depend on the kindness of strangers, when really we should be at a starting point. I hear it in the aspirations set out for the commission that everything should be in place. There is this question of having a carer on Saturdays. Everybody should have a carer on Saturday and Sunday, because you might actually want to go to mass. Imagine that outdated notion. It comes back to the idea that disabled citizens want to participate fully in all aspects of this Republic - cultural, political, social, economic and even religious. It is such a pity that people would be constrained on the basis of lack of access to a personal assistant. As everybody has said, it is a whole-of-government approach. Many of the questions asked have been answered, but is there something the committee could do to pursue a disabled persons' parliament if the witnesses think it is a good idea?