Erin McGreehan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I support Senator Seery Kearney's comments. I was also at the meeting of the Joint Committee on Disability Matters this morning. I wish to highlight the words of the lady who had a stroke when she was in her 30s about the inflexibility of our public system in terms of providing employment.If there is one area in which we should be able to meet targets in terms of the employment of people disabilities it is the public sector. It should be a welcoming employer, but it is so inflexible in terms of supporting people with disabilities. I was shocked to hear this morning that the Department of Education is putting up barriers to this lady being able to get back into work and teaching our children. She is the type of person I would want teaching my children because she has empathy, experience and the best qualifications a teacher could have.

I want to raise another issue, which is a local issue with regard to disabilities. This matter was highlighted last week by an individual, Darragh Ó Heiligh, from Drogheda. This gentleman is visually impaired. There are very welcome roadworks taking place in the Drogheda area but as a result, access to the town of Drogheda is completely blocked off. This is happening repeatedly. There are guidelines in place. Last year, the Department of Transport put in place temporary traffic measures and signs for roadworks guide. However, the requirement is only that "they should allow for access". This needs to be changed to "must allow for access". As I said this gentleman is visually impaired and he had to walk in the middle of a road to get around safely. Thankfully, he did manage to get around safely. This needs to change. When local authorities employ companies to do roadworks they must ensure that they provide safe access for our citizens.