Katherine Zappone (Independent)

----- but I have been impressed by the quality of the debate I have heard. However, Members can imagine this places me and others with a hearing disability at a considerable disadvantage, especially when one must engage in an exchange or a debate with a Minister when he or she comes into the Chamber. In this case, the headphones really do not work. Why I will not demonstrate with the headphones. Effectively, I would be obliged to take out my hearing aids and put on my headphones. However, if I take out my hearing aids, I cannot hear with the headphones. If I put on the headphones on top of my hearing aids, as I am doing now, it generates that feedback Members may be able to hear and consequently, it does not work.

In part, this is educational and I wish to express my thanks to the Clerk's office, to my colleagues the Independent Senators and to the Superintendent of Leinster House for their support in this request. I thank them and the Leader in particular because as a person with a disability or as a disabled person, I was not obliged to engage in a protracted struggle for the support service. As a citizen and as an Oireachtas Member, I should have a right to participate in a public sphere without shame. Often, people with disabilities feel a sense of shame. While it is a conditioned sense of shame, it is shame nonetheless and can be exacerbated, even implicitly, when those who are disabled are told they should have supports but the organisation in question simply cannot afford them at present. I again express my thanks to the Leader and my colleagues. My understanding from the Superintendent's office is that the Seanad Chamber will be fitted with a loop system first within three weeks, after which the Dáil Chamber also will be fitted. This constitutes an important advance for people with disability. Our Chambers will become considerably more accessible for public representatives and members of the public who view or even participate in what Members do. When this happens, it will be a good day. In addition to thanking the Leader, perhaps I could ask him whether Members could eventually have a debate on the issue of people with disabilities and on ways to increase support services for them.