Finian McGrath (Dublin Bay North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I have three other points for Senator Dolan. I met the national voluntary bodies' network who made that point very strongly to me because it is concerned about staff. We are anticipating this and have to respond to it and I am very conscious of that.

In respect of support between different Departments and the choices for people with disabilities, the Senator knows that my political position is that every single person with a disability has to be treated equally and that we have to change the mindset of Irish society. There is fantastic co-operation between the Department of Health under the Minister, Deputy Harris, the Department of Social Protection and other Departments particularly in recent weeks in dealing with the recommendations on making work pay and the medical card and earnings issue for people with a disability. In recent days I have been working closely with the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport. We have to ensure that every Department is focused on people with disabilities and their views so that they can have equal rights and make their choices.

The task force on the personalised budgets, which I set up a couple of months ago, chaired by Christy Lynch, is coming up with an interim report in the next week or two. The final report will be done by December and it will focus on giving people with disabilities more choices and personalised budgets to have services for themselves. A lot of work is being done to push out the equality agenda for people with disabilities but I accept we have a hell of a lot more to do. We have, however, done a lot in the past 11 months.