Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

In a way we must wait and see what the outcome of the review will be, but I hope the Secretary General will take a message from this meeting. It might be already clear to him. While he has a technical and legal problem and a difficulty resolving it, the parameters within which that problem must be solved should be ones whereby he will ensure that the quality of life of the current recipients of the grants and allowances is not degraded in any way. I do not know if he can give an assurance that this will be the case, but it is an assurance that would go a long way towards reassuring and quelling the anxiety of the people who were here today and others who are in receipt of these grants and allowances. Whatever technical, legal or other difficulties the Secretary General, and we collectively, have, we should not degrade their quality of life and mobility capacity. It would be very good if he could give that assurance.

Deputy Mathews mentioned something very important. It is not just an issue for the witnesses, but for Departments and the Government generally. There is an adage to the effect that a problem shared is a problem solved. Sitting on problems and hiding them away or disguising them to external view does not help to resolve them. It is far better to put them out there-----