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

I thank all of the delegations for their informative contributions to the committee. What I heard loud and clear from all them is that we need to rid ourselves of the silos and to ensure interconnectedness between Departments on disability issues. Dr. McCarthy suggested that the Department of the Taoiseach should be the link Department, which is a straightforward request we can make. It makes sense.

On the lack of personal assistant supports and mental health services, is the biggest problem in terms of getting additional personal assistant hours a resistance to allocating bigger budgets or is there also recruitment issues? I have heard through my colleague Deputy Gino Kenny that in mental health services, recruiting and retaining staff is a huge problem. What do we need to do in this space and what are the budgetary implications of trying to address the problem of recruiting staff in these areas? We hear a lot from the Government now that money is not an object yet, it appears, services remain unable to recruit staff. Something is an obstacle. Is it that the pay and conditions for the people we need to recruit in these areas are not what they should be and, consequently, people do not work in them or there is a high staff turnover? I would welcome a comment on this issue.

I am struck by the comments on the housing issue. I am concerned for all sorts of reasons, as are many of others, about the over-dependence of the Government's Rebuilding Ireland strategy on the private sector, primarily because I do not think it is capable of delivering. It was mentioned that we also cannot depend on the private sector to provide accessible accommodation. Perhaps the witnesses would elaborate on that point and also on the fact that there is no requirement on private developers to ensure a percentage of its housing is accessible housing, which is clearly something we should be pushing for.

It was mentioned that medical cards are granted based on people's needs and the high cost of prescriptions and so on. On transport, is free travel for people with disabilities an issue? Senator Dolan's office recently contacted my office about a lady in my area who is non-verbal and was issued a fine for not having a valid parking ticket, which was later quashed following intervention by Senator Dolan's office. As I turned out, I knew the person. I could not believe this happened. This lady cannot get a free travel pass for public transport. Is automatic entitlement to free travel for people with disabilities an ask of the Disability Federation of Ireland?