Dr. Iris Elliott:

I thank the Senator for her question. The concluding observations of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women came out only on Monday. There are references to disabled women and disabled women participated in that review. I will share that information with the committee as well as the other disability findings of UN and Council of Europe recommendations. It is an area where there is a clear illustration of the importance of the leadership of disabled women and girls and disabled persons' organisations, both within the Oireachtas and outside of the Oireachtas. Dr. McDonagh and I first met maybe about 20 years ago, when we worked on this issue, and it concerns me that next year we will have the 30th anniversary of the Commission on the Status of People with Disabilities and this is a very long-standing issue and has been raised repeatedly. There has been guidance, there has been convening of meetings, there has been commentary on the very specific experiences of what is a domestic setting for our disabled women and girls and the lack of progress, the lack of reference to disabled women and girls in the zero-tolerance national strategy on women and girls-----