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

I apologise for arriving late. I am not a member of this committee and am trying to bilocate and trilocate today. I will look at the witnesses' submissions. I wanted to take the opportunity to ask one particular question of the witnesses from the NCBI. They may have seen some of the parliamentary questions I have been submitting about the situation in Dún Laoghaire and I hope Mr. White can shed some light on it. Certain staff members were removed from the office in Dún Laoghaire and there was a possibility at one stage that the office would be closed altogether. The service users were very distressed by that. Despite assurances that the services would not be adversely impacted in Dún Laoghaire, the service users are adamant that they have been and that the drop-in service in particular that used to be available there is effectively gone. Telephone calls to the office are now being answered in Dundalk and many of the small but important services that were available before the staff member was removed are just not there any more. They are extremely worried and are not terribly happy with the responses they have got from the HSE or the NCBI. I would like to ask about that and whether the full range of services can be restored.

The other thing people asked was about membership for service users of the group company. They feel that services should be service user-led or at least heavily influenced by service users. That seems to me a very reasonable proposition. They point out that in the Irish Wheelchair Association, service users can have membership of the group company and they see no reason that could or should not be the case in the NCBI. Finally, on the expenditure on the new Tallaght headquarters, I do not know all the merits and demerits of it but there is a feeling among the service users in Dún Laoghaire that the expenditure on that is really what has impacted adversely on services in Dún Laoghaire. I would like to hear some responses and comments on that.