Dr. Rosaleen McDonagh:

I hope I will always be Rosaleen to Senator Ruane. I want to give a philosophical answer and then a practical answer. In our daily lives, all of us make unconscious decisions around our ethical behaviour. I decide that I am going to be here, what I am going to say and how I will say it. Right throughout today I will speak, as we all will. History has shown us, not just in Ireland but universally, that medics - no disrespect to them - and the law have failed us as disabled people, and as people of colour or ethnic minorities. We have always been the last rung of the ladder. When medics and lawyers get to us, they see the impairment. They look for who is weaker so that they can converse fast and quick, and tidy up the mess that has been made. I do not have enough time to talk about the level of ableism we live with - I would put people to sleep - so I will not do so. What I would say to Lynn - woman to woman - around the optional protocol and the Government's resistance to ratifying it is that if it was about any other group in society, we would have a cultural push behind it. We do not have, as disabled people, that cultural push behind us to elevate our status as human citizens with rights.

Finally, with regard to home care and personal assistant services, members have done a lot of work on this and met a lot of people, including from Nursing Homes Ireland and other groups. I bring the Chair back to the document from the Disability Federation of Ireland, DFI, on people under the age of 65 being put in nursing homes because there was no other option available. We do not pay personal assistants and care workers the money they deserve. Some people like me and others are left wondering who will put me to bed tonight and who will help me with my dinner. There are hundreds upon hundreds of disabled people, men and women, settled and Traveller, and everyone else. This discussion is about assisted dying. I would also like a conversation here in this House, with respect, about assisted living.