Mary Seery Kearney (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses before us.

I am very grateful to Ms Bardon and Ms Farrell for so generously sharing with us their experience so that we can learn from it and figure out the best way to serve their needs by advocating and by calling for debate. I have a general habit on Thursdays of going to the Seanad after these meetings and calling it out. To be fair, the Leader, Senator Regina Doherty, has facilitated us thus far in giving an opportunity to discuss the cost of disability. A debate is scheduled on that in the coming weeks. There are things we are hoping to action. My colleagues here who are also in the Seanad are very good at coming in and articulating this.

As Ms Farrell spoke last, I will begin with her. Where to begin? It is appalling that while she is such a fantastic advocate for her son, and clearly determined and able to advocate and fight tooth and nail for him, there are families who do not have a Mary Farrell. I find that quite frightening. We should not have a situation where it depends on the capacity and ability of family members to determine the quality of life of an individual where there have been life-changing incidents such as these.

Clearly, a medical model is operating whereby, in the immediate aftermath of whatever has occurred, there is some sort of a minimum threshold that says "You are fine now, off you go", and people are left in their own. I gleaned this also from Ms Bardon's experience, and the experiences of others that the witnesses have recounted. That is not okay. This is all foreseeable and it is very annoying. If a multidisciplinary team was pulled together, somebody could probably sit down and draw a spider diagram of everything that are going to be needed, put together a package and figure out a co-ordination system. I do not have a medical background but I imagine that anyone with any sort of administrative ability would be able to foresee and pull together the competencies, and be able to have a bespoke plan such as that produced by the Irish Heart Foundation. I fail to understand how this has not happened and how it is all so disjointed.

I am very grateful that we hear from people such as the witnesses who are willing to come forward and so generously share their own stories. It is a vulnerable and difficult thing to do, but it is also enraging and empowering for people like me to be able to refer to people such as Ms Barton and Ms Farrell. I can say that they have come into the committee and this is what they have said, and ask what we are going to do about it with a sense of anger and outrage on their behalf.

I will come to the specifics. I agree about the issues relating to digital poverty and accessibility. We seem to be moving to a presumption that everybody has access and ability. We heard from a witness some weeks ago regarding an injury who talked about the inability of people to use the digital platform. We need to examine that as well as everything else.

Earlier this week, I watched the wardship documentary on "Prime Time". It was outrageous. My question is on that and the Assisted Decision Making (Capacity) Act 2015. Does that Act make any difference for Ms Farrell and her son and if not, why not? We could have a to-do list coming out of that. If so, how can we enhance that?

Ms Bardon related her story. I will come back to her employment in a moment. I would first like to come back to the gentleman in her group who was refused an electric wheelchair. That suggests that the criteria for qualification are askew. It should be about what he needs, but somebody is adding in other qualifying criteria that assess something else beyond where it should be. What are Ms Bardon's views on that? When a person demonstrates the need, that is it and it should be automatic. No other aspects should be factored in.

I am not ignoring everything that was said but I am anxious about Ms Bardon getting back to work. By profession I am an employment and privacy lawyer. I would look at this through that lens and I would ask why Ms Bardon is not being given reasonable accommodation and why all of that is not happening. Is it to do with Covid-19, or is Covid being used as an excuse? I am interested in that. I am confident that her situation is not unique. If there is a systemic issue that is not facilitating reasonable accommodation, then we need to call it out and name it.

The Irish Heart Foundation is extraordinary and fantastic. I will say what the witnesses do not, which is that only 3% of its funding comes from the State, while 90% of it comes from fundraising. The foundation is amazing. I have family members who have benefited from its support. Its work is extraordinary. If we could take the Irish Heart Foundation model and turn it into how the HSE should do the business, we would be doing very well if we could only get a little bit of it. I congratulate the witnesses and I thank them most sincerely.

What reasons have been given for the stroke strategy not being published? Why commission something and then not act on it? It seems extraordinary. Were there flaws in the process of putting it together?

I apologise for taking so much time, I could do with having all the witnesses on my own for a while to understand this. I thank the witnesses.