Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Wednesday, 22 October 2025
Committee on Disability Matters
Participation in Community Life for Persons with Disabilities: Discussion
2:00 am
Micheál Carrigy (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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I apologise for being late. I was on Chair duty in the Dáil. I welcome the witnesses and thank them for the cross-organisation work that has been done heretofore. There is an awful lot more to do. We are starting from a point well behind. I know Ms McTavish in Sport Ireland is a strong advocate in this area. I know that more is going to be done while she is in that role. Well done on the work so far.
I have a question for all the organisations. Have they the resources in place to implement what we need to do? As some of the witnesses will be aware, I am the Chairperson of the Joint Committee on Autism. The committee is doing review work on the report to see where we are, 24 months later, and what we have implemented. One of the key parts of the programme we did years ago in the committee related to awareness. We did an autism awareness project in Leinster House and over 1,000 people did the training through AsIAm. That will be replicated across other Government Departments now that we have done it here. What plans are required in the witnesses' organisations, non-governmental bodies and Sport Ireland to roll that out? People on the ground are lacking awareness and knowledge. I ask that particularly of the GAA. A couple us from the committee, AsIAm and the EDI officer here were involved with and met representatives of the GAA a number of years ago about sensory facilities. I welcome the work that was done following that meeting by Mr. Peter McKenna and the representatives before the committee today in developing a sensory area in the Cusack stand. It is accessible from the museum and to patrons in the Cusack stand. What further plans does the GAA have in that area? This was the first year of it. How did it work? What further plans has the GAA?