Finian McGrath (Dublin Bay North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senator Feighan for his comments but note this is a serious issue and I absolutely take on board his views. On meeting people with spinal injuries, one hears some of the personal stories about how their lives changed in a matter of seconds, whether they fell off a ladder in a building site, had a car crash or had some sort of injury. All of a sudden, these wonderful people who were active find themselves disabled. That is the tough side. It undoubtedly is a tough disability to have but the thing that blew me away that evening two weeks ago in Dún Laoghaire was their courage, positivity and determination to get back to work. They wanted to contribute to society and some of them had very valuable skills. That is something I will be pushing because if we are talking about making work pay for people in any kind of report, we must ensure that people with spinal injuries are included in that group.