John Dolan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State has read out the written response I was given. I asked supplementary questions on the basis of that response. As I said, there is information from the management information system in the HSE that answers the first part of my question, but it was not provided here. With regard to self-direction, the service aims to facilitate individuals to maximise their capacity to live full and independent lives and to achieve this by supporting people to live in community based settings and access facilities and services, including engagement with community based education, training and employment. Will somebody tell me how a person getting between one and five hours of support a week can do that? There are 996 such people, almost half the cohort concerned. How can five hours per week provide something that ambitious? It cannot.