Ms Emily O'Reilly:

Go raibh maith agat. I am glad Deputy Ó Snodaigh raised the lost at sea issue because it is something that has continued to trouble me. It was the first, and at that time the only, recommendation that had ever been rejected by the Oireachtas. I had to battle hard to get it to the committee in the first place. The committee at the time split along party political lines, which was very unwelcome. When I was at the McGill summer school some time ago, Francis Byrne, who is one of the family members who made the complaint originally came up to me and asked me if I would intervene one more time. Whenever I have been asked about this case over the last while I have taken a purist approach in that I have said I did my statutory duty and brought the matter to the attention of the Oireachtas which made its decision and that was it. However, I did make a commitment to Francis that I would make one more attempt at it. Perhaps my director general might not be too thrilled but I have discussed the matter with her and with some of the officials. Perhaps in my final act as Ombudsman I will write to the Taoiseach and raise this case again and see if something could be done for the family because it should not be forgotten that while certain parties opposed the recommendation, other parties supported it at the time. It is something that has continued to haunt that family. I used to talk about the case in Europe when I was on the election campaign. When people asked me what was the most difficult thing I had to do I mentioned it as it was difficult at the time. I am very glad that the committee might raise the issue again and that I will fulfil the commitment I made to the Byrne family.

I will ask my director general, Ms Bernadette McNally, to talk about the resource issue. I appreciate the difficulty every public body has at this point in time. I said a few times yesterday that everybody is under the cosh. They have austerity measures in effect and they have to shave huge amounts of money off their bills while still providing adequate services to the people. Inevitably the Department of Health and the HSE are going to be at the centre of the issue because they are making literally life and death decisions and they are trying to husband their resources in particular ways. My point is not that I am in an ivory tower and I can just make a recommendation and that I am not the one who has to find the money for it but history has shown us how health has sometimes evaded its responsibilities and the legal imperatives on it that ultimately catch up with the Department. Ultimately, we are all the losers in that regard. The Department, understandably, acts in a fearful way. It sees my recommendations and expect that it will cost money. There is no black and white solution to any problem. If people come and talk in a frank, open and honest way and find ways through particular issues, that seek to address the resource issue but also seek to address people’s real needs and rights then I am confident that ways can be found to a solution. In terms of the mobility allowance and the motorised transport grant, the Department knew for years that it was out of kilter with the equal status legislation and it knew during the boom years as well so there was absolutely no excuse for it not to get its act together in that regard. I welcome the fact that the Taoiseach’s office and the group set up under Sylda Langford are looking at the difficulties experienced by people with disabilities and trying to devise a more modern scheme.

I also welcome the fact, as the Chairman said, that people who are living through this rightly demand to be actively involved. Their mantra is something like not without us, about us. Despite the economic difficulties we have we are still a wealthy country even compared with some of our colleagues in the rest of Europe. It should not be beyond either our resources, wit or capacity to make rational decisions and be creative in order to devise a scheme for the relatively small amount of people who are in need in that respect. That is why I said yesterday at the press conference that it is time for all of us to have grown up discussions about this. If you will forgive me Chairman, that is the role of the committee to facilitate those discussions. When people come in with barriers up already it can be difficult to get through to them. One of the great things the committee can do is attempt to break down the barriers. I will ask the person who is in charge of all these resources to account for herself.