Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank all the groups for attending this meeting. They all do wonderful work. I am not ignoring the gentlemen from the Irish Heart Foundation but I have three or four questions for the other witnesses. It is almost like "speed questioning" so I will not waste time. I have particular respect for the work done by Mr. Dillon's organisation. I believe we could have found the €8 million savings inflicted in September and, along with my committee colleagues, we are very disheartened by it. Moreover, we continue to investigate it. The cuts across the country are starting to become clear and people are beginning to complain in all our constituency offices. Some counties seem far more affected than others. Is there any feedback on what is happening around the country?

I have met with local people concerned with carer's allowance in the past number of weeks and there is a particular fear that the half carer's allowance will be cut in this budget. Will Mr. Dillon give an indication of why his organisation sees that coming? He argued earlier that we are misspending our current budget despite the fact it is shrinking. Will he outline how this is happening? Will he tell us who is the gentleman being put to bed at 3.30 p.m., as that is outrageous?

I met Mr. Dillon earlier this year and we spoke about the older persons strategy. The carer strategy was finally launched this year. We are waiting on the disability strategy. Is the same person in the HSE producing all these strategies? Is that why we are waiting on them in chronological order? I am joking and I hope it is not the same person doing them. If the same person is doing them, could the committee address the issue and seek other resources, seeing as there are thousands of people in the HSE who could examine the strategies?

The HSE is apparently to remove disability services aimed directly at servicing children's special schools. Is that true or is the matter being investigated?