James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

There is no way anybody in the Government, including myself, Deputy Kathleen Lynch and Deputy Alex White, thinks it is okay to be in breach of the law. Part of what we hope might arise from today is that perhaps with the fresh eyes Deputy Peter Mathews mentioned we will get additional insight into how we can resolve this. I am aware that farmers go through a tough time and that things are tough at present. Each year they must deal with the weather and the market and they must operate within regulations. As the Deputy and I know, the law changes and sometimes that has unforeseen implications. People are often given time to become compliant.

I do not dispute, and never have disputed, what the Ombudsman has said or her findings. However, I keep returning to the difficulty we have. We are dealing with taxpayers' money on the one hand and, on the other, a group of people whose need is clear and obvious and whose independence in many cases is dependent on this. We all acknowledge what independence means, as opposed to having to depend on somebody else. We want to facilitate that for people where and when we can. We are trying to expedite an extraordinarily complex and difficult issue. There is also the fact that if we were to expand this in its current form, it would obviously have enormous consequences given the funding we have in the health budget. We do not have a huge amount of money that can be taken from elsewhere within the system. If we do that, it will have a negative impact. The country's budget does not allow us to take it from outside the system. I realise others will have a different view on that, and that is fair enough. However, the reality we must deal with is that the money we are spending every day on health is borrowed money and comes with terms and conditions.

I am being very frank. We are here as much to seek help on how we solve this problem as to tell the committee how we will solve it. As Deputy Kathleen Lynch said already, if it were easily solved, we would have solved it some time ago. It is extremely difficult. On the one hand, we must act within the law and within our budget while, on the other hand, we do not wish to have a negative impact on those who have this grant and for whom it is such an integral part of their ability to live an independent life at home. I hope the committee will accept our bona fides that we want this resolved and we want to do it with full input from all quarters, most particularly from those who use the service, with regard to how the moneys we have can be best used to support them while still acting within the law.