It is great to have our American friends with us and I would like to be associated with the Acting Chairman's remarks. I thank the Members for their contribution to the debate. Deputy Martin Browne spoke about the overlooked or "passed over". It is a very good way to look at it, a very simple phrase that people are being overlooked or passed over. The Deputy put it very well. Deputy Cairns spoke about Article 19 which we have explored many times. It is a significant issue. Our Vice Chair, Deputy Tully, spoke about the medical model. That is at the very heart of how we proceed. We have looked at the medical model of care for people with disabilities. A lot of care for disability developed out of community initiatives going back 50 years to the mid-1960s when community groups came together. I think the social model has to be embraced in a whole variety of ways if we are to provide for independent living. There are many initiatives for integrating people with disabilities. They can be integrated more into the fabric of society everywhere, whether in urban or rural Ireland. They can be integrated. We should embrace the social model in a major way. Some practitioners throughout the country are still talking about the medical model as if it is a question of providing the care and shelter. I spoke earlier about Maslow's theory. If we provide the care, shelter and basic food and water, that is only part of the pyramid. There are three other parts, the belonging, love and fulfilment. Deputy Tully's remarks about the medical model are something we have to continue to reflect upon.
Deputy Ellis made the point that Government needs to take note of the report. We are not providing the report just to be debated here in the Dáil this afternoon or to be debated at all. We need action on it. We have listened to the practitioners, the people with disabilities, their families, carers and communities. They have poured out their evidence to us. We need to ensure that we are listening to them. On the various issues in respect of adaptability and house adaptability we have to take note of the report. That is what we are about. I constantly say that we need to keep the drum banging. Maybe we have to start banging the whole percussion section now as well because the drum seems to be silenced and we need to get more on it.
The primary medical certificate needs to be looked at. We are 12 months in from when commitments were given in the House in respect of the appeals board and with the resignation of the appeals board, it is almost 12 months up and nothing has happened. It gives out an awful bad signal for people who have gone through the process, which is cumbersome enough. We need to have action on that. We also need to have action to ensure that whatever changes are made through the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage or through the Department with responsibility for disabilities make it more accessible for people to live independently and that we are encouraging more people to do so.
I thank the people with disabilities and their representative organisations for the work they do throughout the year in lobbying and looking at and developing policy. They bring to us the issues that affect their daily lives. I know that I speak for all members of the committee in saying that we truly value their lived experiences. We truly value the way they have highlighted living with disabilities and how they navigate the constant problems and through the innovations they find to try to live a better life. We listen to that every Thursday morning and we truly value it.
Ireland has started on the UNCRPD implementation but it is vitally important that this process is not about putting more regulation, paper or policy within Departments. It must be about action. We will only be judged on the implementation of the UNCRPD insofar as we have implemented it and can say that the people with disabilities have got more freedoms to live, more autonomy and opportunities and that they have as many opportunities as the rest of society. It is deeply important that the public sector inclusion objective be put in place as a matter of urgency, which is for public authorities to act with the objective of meeting Article 19. We have more work to do here, also, to make the Houses of the Oireachtas themselves fully accessible for people with disabilities in every aspect and to ensure that anybody who comes into the Houses of the Oireachtas can access any part of them no matter what their disability is. We also have to be mindful, as the Minister of State said in her remarks, that there are so many disabilities, such as intellectual disabilities. It is not just about people with a wheelchair. All of that has to be factored in.
I am deeply privileged to lead this committee. It is a fantastic committee. The work rate, compassion and objectivity of people on the committee are truly inspiring. We will only be judged on whether we have influenced policy enough to make it better for people with disabilities, their families, their communities and their carers. I never got the opportunity to say this on the floor of the Dáil, but at the very start of it two years ago we went out looking for public submissions before we set our terms of reference. We were one of the first committees to do that. We were inundated with community groups and individuals and their living experience. They poured out their hearts to us in putting their documentation in front of us. They described their lives and pared it back to the bare necessities and bare challenges that they have. They put it all on paper and allowed us to have that to form the terms of reference of our committee. We are duty-bound to make sure that we keep those people at the heart of our discussions every Thursday morning and ensure that any reports that we have see implementation.
I commend the Minister of State on the work she does in the Department. I know she is fighting a battle because there are massive challenges on a daily basis. People with disabilities make up a fair segment of society and they need the same recognition as everybody else. I ask Dáil Éireann to accept the report of the committee.