Ms Paula Soraghan:

I thank the members for their questions. Membership of ILMI is open to disabled people aged 16 and over. We are very well aware that many disabled people are born disabled. We need to bridge that gap and have that link and that there is a support with DPOs, such as ILMI, and parents, for example, so that they know that supports are out there for their child and that their child is not the problem because often what happens is that it is very much around deficits, what your child would never do and what your child would struggle with. It can be a massive stress on parents.

Linked in with that, within schools and communities, as I mentioned earlier, we need to move from this idea of awareness, because awareness is not effective and does not bring about systemic change to disability equality training. We need DPOs to be resourced and funded appropriately and on a multi-annual basis and to have DPOs, such as ILMI, where disabled people are employed and deliver disability equality training within the education system, including at primary, second and third levels and in colleges, but also, within communities. It is around mainstream services that young disabled children and young disabled people would be accessing, so that they are well aware that disability is a social and a political issue, that it is not a personal failing, that it is not their impairment that is the problem, that they do not need to change but society that has to change and that regardless of what your impairment is and how it affects you, everyone has value and has talent and we all deserve to receive the appropriate supports to genuinely thrive, live our lives to the fullest and, for example, to have a personal assistant service to help us with that. Going back to those person-centred supports, they are important.

Looking again through the intersectional lens, disabled people are not a homogenous group. We are not one dimensional human beings. As I mentioned in my opening statement, we are friends, brothers and sisters. We come from many different identities and they can intersect so there needs to be that recognition within the different identities disabled people have, and that holistic approach needs to be applied.

In relation to how ILMI works with marginalised groups, we are well aware that disabled people come from various backgrounds and that they have been oppressed and have been experiencing a lot of discrimination. As we work through the social model of disability lens, which sees that disability is something that is done to somebody and is an interaction between someone with an impairment label and the external environment barriers and the ablest attitudes, often that is what the social model of disability sees disability as. It is not something that a person has but it is something that is done to a person with a impairment label or a perceived impairment label. It can be very empowering for many disabled people to experience that light-bulb moment or that paradigm shift that, "I am not the problem, I do not need to change and it is society that needs to change."

As Senator McGreehan mentioned earlier, many of our members feel that they have been welcomed into their tribe, so to speak. They finally feel that they have been welcomed into a community. Many people feel isolated and lonely. They feel like they are the problem but when they come into the Independent Living Movement Ireland, they understand that we can work together to achieve social change for everybody. They learn new skills. There are different social spaces, as I say, such as the youth collective and different policy spaces. At present, we are running health consultations, for example. There is an element of catharsis where disabled people primarily do not have that space to talk about issues that affect them whereas DPOs, such as ILMI, are an autonomous space as a collective for disabled people to come together, whether in person or online, to address issues that are affecting us.

We are not only about the issues. We are action and solution based and around the collective. It is not about the system can change for me as an individual disable person. It is around this being the system at present, this is what needs to change and this is what we can do as a collective of disabled people to break down the barriers and make society inclusive for everybody and that these are the allies that we need to help us along the way because we cannot do it on our own. There are allies that we have within this committee and we welcome that. We need to continue to build on that and future-proof an Ireland for everyone, regardless of whether you are disabled or not.

We are an ageing population. With housing, for example, if you future-proofing and if there are universally-designed homes, it would mean fewer people would need to go into nursing homes. You could live in your home and it would suit your needs throughout your life course. We are passionate about that and very aware of that. State funding and resourcing needs to reflect that that is embedded in future policies.