Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Mr. O'Reilly and Ms Kenny. Their comments today have been powerful. I firmly believe that there should be special cases and allowances for particular situations which carers face and that there should not be a means test in these cases. Means testing carer's allowance is not right in general but, in Ms Kenny's case and other genuine cases, carer's allowance and more should be provided for the work being done. No money could equal the value of that work. In her case and others, such a great service is being provided for the State. All these cases genuinely need to be looked at. I am a proud Carlow woman. Ms Kenny spoke about the boundaries. I am very aware of the boundaries in Carlow. We have excellent schools in Carlow but the boundaries are unacceptable. A disability does not know any boundary. Despite this, there are guidelines on boundaries within the policies of the HSE and Departments. That is unacceptable. These are the issues we need to address. Boundaries are not acceptable. They should not prevent people from using the services they want just because they live in counties Kildare, Carlow or Laois. I see it all the time and it is unacceptable. That is something we need to fight on. I will bring up the issue with the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, because it needs to be addressed.

I read in a report yesterday that people with disabilities were those hardest hit by the pandemic. In this report, the National Advocacy Service and the Patient Advocacy Service detailed how people with disabilities were among those hardest hit by the impact of Covid and the associated health measures. The study also outlined how people with disabilities felt marginalised when it came to decision-making. That is a real issue for us. We are not giving a chance to the people we need to have around the table making the decisions, such as Ms Kenny and Mr. O'Reilly.

We need to change policy and we need to make sure that the people affected are the ones who are sitting at the table. They need to have input because they are the ones whose lives are affected. It is not until your own life is affected that you can see these issues.

I welcome that Mr. O'Reilly mentioned Article 19 of the UNCRPD, which states that persons with disabilities should have the opportunity to choose their place of residence, including community services, facilities and so on. That is so important and it is a major issue we need to address. I also compliment Mr. O'Reilly on lobbying his local council to get a motion passed. It was so good to hear that he lobbied his local county council with a motion for the right to personal assistance services, which was passed unanimously at local level. I compliment him on that. We need to hear that he was doing so much great work. We need to look at legislating to underpin the right to a personal assistant.

Many of the questions I was going to ask have been asked. I will ask Ms Kenny, as someone who knows the services and where they are failing, when we speak about boundaries, the HSE or services, where does she think the joined-up thinking could come from?

Should Mr. O'Reilly look at submitting his motion to all 31 local authorities? It is important. I am passionate about this motion. Will he let it go to all 31 local authorities? Can we, as a committee, work with him to see what we could do to help with legislation?

I thank the witnesses very much for their stories today. It is not until you are in that position that you realise how affected families and children are by it. It has an impact on all the family, including a mother, father, aunt and uncle. Everyone is impacted when we have not got proper services.