Tom Clonan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Apologies. Can we start the clock now? I am here to speak about the despicable practice by HSE disability service managers who are refusing to allow disabled citizens to avail of independent enablers - the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, calls them "enablers" - to allow them to have autonomy and choice in personal assistance.

I have two examples in CHO 6, where this seems to be a particular problem. In the case of one family, their son went to London in 2019 and suffered a traumatic brain injury. He was returned to them during Covid-19 and has no personal assistance. He is 29. He went to London with his whole life ahead of him and returned with a traumatic brain injury. Unlike the support and assistance he got with the UK National Health Service, there is nothing for him here. Therefore, he is at home with a traumatic brain injury, with his parents. There is funding for 40 hours a week.The disability service manager in CHO 6, which includes Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown, on her own cognisance, says he cannot use an independent enabler and must use an aged healthcare provider, like Rehab, for example, which is completely inappropriate to his needs.

At a meeting last May, the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, instructed the HSE to facilitate disabled citizens in this way, but I am getting increasing correspondence from disabled citizens all around the country whose disability services managers are saying, in an idiosyncratic and capricious manner, that they cannot use X service and must use a service of the manager's choosing. This is the result of a charity-based model of disability. I am sure my guests from Germany will be shocked to hear this because, in Germany, there is a rights-based approach to the provision of independent supports for disabled citizens.

I have another case, that of Lisa Domican, who was here for the previous Commencement matter. I am disappointed to note that, yet again, the Minister for Health, Deputy Donnelly, has failed to turn up here to give an explanation or answer. Lisa has two children, Grace, who is 24, and Liam, who is 26, both of whom suffer from autism, epilepsy, PMDD, and anxiety disorder. They are at home with no supports or care and the HSE will not allow Lisa to use an independent enabler so that they can have their own autonomy and independence.

I also got a letter from a beautiful lady whom I will call Bláithín because I do not want to give her real name. She is 86 and her husband, who uses a rollator, is 88. Their daughter got a brain tumour in 1970 when she was three years old and they have no supports. Bláithín tells me in this letter - Members can see her beautiful handwriting - that she got cancer two years ago and is just recovering. She is not supposed to lift anything, but in the wonderful Ireland of 2024, she is expected to lift her 58-year-old daughter out of her wheelchair and into bed every day. Yet again, there is funding in place, provided by people like the Minister, Deputy Rabbitte, but the HSE refuses to allow Bláithín and her family to use an enabling broker to get an independent personal assistant service. Imagine an 88-year-old man on a rollator and his 86-year-old wife, who is a cancer survivor, being expected to lift their 58-year-old daughter in and out of bed. I am ashamed of what is happening in this country. This is happening despite the care referendum, when more than 1.2 million Irish people voted to have independent supports, outside of the family, for disabled citizens.

Why are HSE managers bullying families throughout the country in this way? Why are they bullying disabled citizens and being allowed to get away with it, despite the explicit instruction of the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, and the Minister, Deputy Donnelly that this be otherwise and that citizens would have a rights-based, independent, autonomous set of supports?