Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank all our guests for being here and for their presentations. Ms Casserly mentioned that a number of years ago, all of a sudden, as a young woman she was faced with Parkinson's, wondering how she was going to cope with that and tell her family about it and that she also had to give up work, etc. It has been life-changing. I do not wish to be despondent, but what I am hearing is that she is left in a void, that she has to start at base level as if she is in junior infants and only beginning to get on with life from hereon in, but the supports are just not there and there is no pathway. This comes through in other areas such as, for example, when a child first receives a diagnosis of autism. The parents have to first cope with that and then find out where to go, what to do and so on. What is lacking is a type of case-worker who will take on the person or family and point them on the pathway in terms of services, contacts and how they are co-ordinated. There is a huge gap in that co-ordination for anybody with disabilities, be that an acquired disability or one the person was born with.

An issue regularly raised with me, and with this committee by witnesses, is that of entitlements, in particular the medical card. There should be no question that anybody with a disability should be entitled to a medical card irrespective of income. That should be a given. I know of amputees, some of whom have appeared as witnesses before this committee, who cannot get a medical card. Even though the cost of replacement of an artificial leg is €20,000 and that might need to be done every two or three years, in the cases raised with me these people cannot get a medical card or access funding. The lived experiences of the witnesses are important to us as policymakers and legislators. They have articulated those experiences well today. It is important to note that the mobility grant was withdrawn and that ten years later it still has not been replaced. That is a huge issue. Anybody trying to get a primary medical certificate will know only too well the difficulties that arise in that regard.

I come from east Galway where, when people are refused a medical certificate and they have to go for an assessment, they are offered an appeal in Dún Laoghaire. It might be an enormous challenge for them to get to Dún Laoghaire for the appeal because they may not be fit to travel to Dublin, which is a 2.5 hour journey each way. We do have other clinics, such as the clinic in Roscommon, which I last visited three or four years ago. That is the type of problem people are facing.

There is something that galls more than anything else. I have come across a number of cases of it. One man getting disability payment got married. His wife is working. His disability allowance has been cut to about €50 a week because his wife's means are taken into account. I have met the couple. It is demoralising for him. He says had he known this would happen, they would not have got married but would have lived in sin. He smiles when he says that, but he is very upset that he is being penalised because he got married.

Housing adaptation grants were mentioned. There is a problem because the local authorities do great work on this but they are given an amount of funding, and they make a contribution towards the cost but they do not cover it. Then, when they assess how much they will pay, they must look at all income coming into the house. If a son or daughter is living in the house because they cannot afford to rent, and they are working, their income must be taken into account and that might push someone over the threshold where they will not get even 10% of the cost of the adaptations. We have a lot of work to do.

I do not necessarily have questions for the witnesses, but I want to echo what we get from others. I commend the witnesses on their forthright contributions. The committee is working hard and is united. We are doing that because every one of us on the committee wants to be on it. We volunteered to be on the committee to try and make a difference. With the witnesses help and continued engagement we will do that. I thank the witnesses and apologise because I must go to the Business Committee meeting at 11 a.m. If I leave, I am not being disrespectful. It is just that I have to be elsewhere. There are many issues and problems, and we want to be able to support the Minister in making changes. That is why we are working as we are.