Mary Seery Kearney (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I wish to begin by endorsing Senator Ruane's call for a debate. I would like to note that I previously did so as well. Our data is being collected, our privacy and the entirety of our lives is being collated for marketing and sinister purposes, unbeknownst to us.

It is Thursday, so I am here to talk about this morning's meeting of the Joint Committee on Disability Matters. We heard two representative experiences, the first being the Irish Thalidomide Association. I do not need to explain that, except to say that it is shocking that in the 1970s these people were awarded medical cards and some of them are denied it because of their income. We need to arrest that and I will pursue it. In addition, the lived daily experience of people was impactful. If one does not have a limb, how does one take one's blood pressure? In addition, the excruciating pain they have to go through in just having blood taken when they do not have an arm. People are not insured to take blood from legs. Their lived experience is quite excruciating and we need to have a tailored response to it. I echo their calls.

We also had a wonderful woman called Ms Elaine Dennehy in to speak about how she is in permanent lockdown because of the use of light-emitting diode, LED, bulbs. She cannot leave her home because there are traffic lights at the end of her road. She lived in the town, but had to move out of the town. She cannot leave the end of her street because the LED lights and the traffic lights cause her such excruciating pain and illness. To back it up, to be fair to her, there was also an organisation called LightAware.

Ms Dennehy cited an EU opinion from the Scientific Committee on Health, Environmental and Emerging Risks that noted there is this phenomenon in response to LED lighting in communities. The prevalence of its use is just making people's lives unlivable. Germany has recognised this as a disability only recently, and a man has won a right to have incandescent light bulbs provided and supplied to him. We can make arrangements locally for people and we should, but we need to have a debate and discussion on this issue.