Pauline Tully (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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The point Mr. Sherwin has made has been made by many people who have come before the committee. They are often the only unpaid person in the room but they are the experts in the room. Some smaller DPOs that have been formed are told to get charitable status and then they can apply for various forms of funding. They say they are not charities but disabled people advocating for themselves. We need to move away from the charitable model. The Minister had promised to put together a register of DPOs but this still has not happened. Progress on this is very slow. It is something that we hope to see happen. Various public bodies and Departments will then know exactly with whom they should be engaging, depending on the nature of the policy or whatever they are doing, and they can engage with the appropriate DPO.