Emer Higgins (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Ms Kenny and Mr. O'Reilly for sharing their stories and experiences with us. Two things struck home with me massively when they were talking. One is what Mr. O'Reilly said about the 40 hours of support that were offered to him, which was less than half of what he needed to achieve independence. That is very stark and, unfortunately, tallies with what Ms Kenny has just told us about potentially getting grant aid towards 50% of the housing adaptation requirement that would give her daughter greater independence. How Ms Kenny has spoken is a reminder to us all of the struggle and the fight for support that parents and families of children with additional needs have to go through. That is wrong. Every member of the committee believes that is wrong and we are here because we want to try to change that. People are already under so much pressure when they have to cope with additional needs in their family that the last thing they need is forms, which Ms Kenny described as soul destroying, being thrown at them repeatedly and having to fight for every little bit of support that comes their way. That is what we want to change.

I have a question for each of the witnesses. Mr. O'Reilly spoke about the process of sourcing his own PA service. It sounds cumbersome. It sounded like an unfair responsibility to put on people. I am interested to hear from him how he thinks it could be improved. I am not sure if I heard him correctly but I thought he said that administrative duties was an additional complication that had to be taken out of the budget or perhaps taken out of his hours. Perhaps he could explain that a little further, as well and give us some advice as to whether that is something in which we can make changes.

One of the many issues Ms Kenny highlighted as an advocate for her children is an issue I have encountered in Lucan in my constituency, which is close to the border with Kildare. It is that county borders are effectively becoming eligibility criteria for certain services. In Ms Kenny's case, it was for preschool. This is something we have discussed in the committee previously so I would be interested to hear Ms Kenny's views on how we could deal with that. I would love to remove that countywide barrier, as it were, and it has been a recommendation of this committee. If we inserted county and-or a 30 km radius, does she think that would be helpful or would it still be very restrictive? I want to hear her opinion on that because that is something very practical we could do quite quickly, and one would imagine it would have quite a big impact on a number of families.

Those are my two questions. I thank both of the witnesses for their contributions. They were very moving, unfortunately. I am very sorry that both of them are in this situation whereby barrier after barrier is put in their way when it comes to accessing services. That is not what any of us wants, and we genuinely want to change it.