Mr. Owen Collumb:

Áiseanna Tacaíochta is a brokership.

It is not what all people with disabilities would wish to run their service through. Áiseanna Tacaíochta know that is a huge issue and we are quite willing, as a board, to facilitate the transition from a person who would like a direct payment and perhaps to leave Áiseanna Tacaíochta and move on to a payment directly from the HSE to the individual. At the moment, Áiseanna Tacaíochta is just a brokership which facilitates money from the HSE, signs the service-level agreement with the HSE and facilitates the money being put into individuals' bank accounts. It offers administration advice and how to manage that money. There is also a charge then to individuals for that administration fee, which is considerable. Áiseanna Tacaíochta is not the answer to direct payments. I was a member of the task force. I am currently waiting for the service to be rolled out because I have applied for a direct payment through the task force. There are three models of direct payments - one which is less bureaucratic, one which is similar to ÁT and is similar to a brokership model and then there is signing a service-level agreement with the HSE and having money directly paid to the individual to run their own service. I emphasise ÁT is one model of direct payments. We need more models in the system. We need choice and control.

It would be incorrect for me to leave this discussion without saying the HSE model of delivering PA services has seemed to go down a different pathway where private organisations buy hours from the HSE to deliver services to people with disabilities. These are private companies which are profiting on the back of our disabilities. It seems to be the norm at the moment that the private company will be given a number of hours to look after us in our homes, workplaces or colleges. We do not need looking after. We decide on what we want to do with our lives and we can direct our lives in the way we wish.

That is just an overview of our organisation. It is not perfect in any way, shape or form. We are not a prison. We let people come to our organisation and leave it when they wish. We will even facilitate them with those choices as well. Members may call us the ÁT network if they find Áiseanna Tacaíochta too difficult. I thank the committee.