Mary Seery Kearney (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I begin by addressing the comments of Senator Martin. Freedom of speech is not an unqualified absolute right. It has to be qualified and must operate within rules of responsibility, some of which are enshrined in the Constitution and the actions and operations of this House for the benefit and ease of the separation of powers.

I came in today to highlight a meeting of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Disability Matters this morning, which was fantastic because it was on the subject of the participation of people with disabilities in political, cultural, community and public life. We heard directly from the lived experience of people and their exclusion. No matter how well-intentioned or thoughtful our actions, we heard about how by default, we end up excluding. We heard from Joe McGrath speaking on behalf of the National Platform of Self Advocates. He was representing people with intellectual disabilities. He spoke about election literature and access to information about candidates and manifestos. Last week, I spoke about the ESRI report commissioned by the NDA on exclusion and access to education, the risk of poverty, literacy, digital literacy and access to all those. If we accepted that last week, then hearing Mr. McGrath's comments this morning and accepting the point that if people with disabilities are going to be more likely to be in poverty and are not going to have access to social media, digital skills and literacy, the first thing we must do is go to the representatives and those with lived experience and ask them what they want us to do not what we think they should be doing. It really brings home the whole point of the Joint Committee on Disability Matters, which is "nothing about us without us". We need to really remember that and as public representatives, bow to that first and foremost in all of our actions.