“My daughter Olivia is aged 17 years and has cerebral palsy, her physical disabilities are quite severe and she is a wheelchair user.”

“However, she is a very sociable happy girl who loves to be out and about and while cruelly limited in many respects through no fault of her own, her late father and I always sought to make her life as full and happy as possible by encouraging the social side of her personality.”

“However, as Olivia gets older this has become more difficult due to the lack of accessible Changing Places facilities in Ireland.”

“She is unable to transfer to a disabled toilet and instead she has to be changed while lying on a bench preferably with the aid of a hoist.”

“As these facilities are not available in Ireland and she is obviously now too big to use the baby changing unit, her opportunities to socialise are becoming more and more curtailed. This is very sad.”

“She loves bowling, going to the cinema and shopping, visiting cafes with her friends, attending concerts and swimming and travelling.”

“The only way I can manage to bring her to these activities as if I am prepared to place her on a floor to change her and then lift her manually from the floor to her wheelchair. This is undignified, unhygienic and dangerous.”

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