Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank our guests for their presentations. It is ironic that this morning the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, issued a statement on Ireland submitting its milestone first report under the UNCRPD. Lots of things are noted in the report about what is happening and there are also one or two notes on further progress that is required in law, policy and practice to give effect to the convention. I was just reading it there while listening to some of the issues the witnesses raised at a level that affects their lives. For instance, the stroke strategy has not been published and I have tabled a question to the Minister for Health this week asking when the strategy will be launched and published. More important, strategies are kind of a deflection for doing anything because a strategy sets out a plan but we never see the implementation plan or the finance to go with it. That is why oftentimes a strategy is called for, launched and put in place but it takes years and that means a number more years where money is not being spent. It is important that we call this out for what it is. If the strategy is to be published it needs to be published with the budgetary strength to give it effect and make sure it is implemented.

Going back to what Ms Farrell said about the experiences with her son, there is one thing that hits me. I come from a background in construction and when I get a set of plans the first thing I do is set out a programme on how to bring together all the different strands to make sure the building is it built. I start with the foundations and work up and get it completed and hand it over. Everybody knows what their job is. They are also reporting to one person, similar to a project manager, so everybody knows what is going on in the project. Within our health services and patient care I come across this issue more and more, whereby there is no central domain with all the information on a patient that everybody feeds into. It is a system that needs to be changed. How many people miss out because somebody did not know something or somebody came home from hospital after a stroke and nobody visited them and they did not know where to go for help after that? It is as if the day they leave the hospital the hospital thinks that is its job done and it is up to somebody else to take over from there. However, nobody takes over and, therefore, it is creating this huge frustration. It is a time-consuming and mentally challenging position for everybody in the family to try to deal with the person who has the disability. I have come across the same thing with people who have had strokes. They are initially treated in hospital or whatever and then they are signed out and told they can go home to their families and somebody else will take care of that. We have seen a lot of it and both Ms Bardon and Ms Farrell have articulated what they have been living through from their own point of view.

Ms Farrell has been at this for a long time and I am sure she sometimes gets tired of explaining it. My first question is for her in particular. Has she seen improvements, or did we regress because of austerity and fail to pick up the pieces since? Where does she think we are now compared with when she started out? It might be a tough question.