Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent)
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I thank the three groups for coming in. I have read their detailed opening statements for which I thank them.

Within this committee, we listen to people's lived experience. At what level do the three organisations represented here engage with people with disabilities in order to inform themselves as to how they can implement policies within their own organisations? How are facilities within the ETBs developed? Does the Public Appointments Service have somebody with a disability on interview boards or doing the assessing? How does that work? Are people available to do that type of work? When the WRC is making decisions on issues relating to discrimination against somebody with a disability, does it use the experience and expertise of people with disabilities and try to figure out whether somebody might be discriminated against?

The work of the organisations is varied and yet at the same time there is commonality across what they are doing in that they are dealing with issues relating to appointments, education or adjudicating on things that are wrong. How do the three different organisations deal with that? How do they engage with people who have the lived experience?

Are the facilities and buildings of the organisations equipped or fortified to ensure the people with disabilities can have access and can work in them? They should set an example for other employers. I came across the case of a young man who had done a third level course in computers but he wanted to do accountancy. One of the biggest obstacles was trying to find accountancy offices accessible to him. It was a bit of a challenge. It is not that they did not want to take him on, but they were not equipped to do so. In many cases the buildings were rented. Companies in rented space think about how they will work in it they do not think about disabilities first. Those are the two points I wanted to raise.