Michael Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Mr. Tyndall and Ms Cooney for their thought-provoking evidence. On the last point, the committee should write to the HSE and the Minister for Health in advance of the agreement of the NSP in order to put our weight behind the witnesses’ opinions, to ask for an urgent review of that and to ask that funding would be made available in the service plan. We should do that as early as we possibly can with the team to get that into the system.

I wish Mr. Tyndall the best as he goes on to his next stage. I thank him for the enormous contribution he has made in the Office of the Ombudsman and in previous roles. In the last 12 months we have heard a pile of evidence from people, families and representative groups of people with disabilities advancing the cause of people with disabilities. I will take the word “grounding” from Mr. Tyndall’s report. I reflected deeply on it and I reflect on it this morning as well. There is almost a paralysis within Governments and within Departments when it comes to dealing with this issue as a glaring omission in terms of people with disabilities and them having access to mobility in any way, shape or form. We could have 15 meetings with discussions on the primary medical certificates and the appeals board and the inadequacies in those, although I know they are not the subject of this morning’s meeting. I also mention the overall issue of people who are grounded because there is no proper system in place. I thank Mr. Tyndall for his honesty on it and for singling out the inability of both Governments and Departments to deal with this as an issue that he and his office have been following for some time. The committee needs to highlight that, be forceful behind the report, accept the report and demand answers from Departments and Government on what its plan is and on what is there to put an equitable, fair and easily accessible scheme in place for people with disabilities to ensure they have accessibility. Our committee should accept the report.

Without mincing our words, we should write to the Minister for Finance, the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth and the Minister for Health to demand action on this. Otherwise, we are going to be skirting around it. It is very clear from the questions the frustration members have had over the years in trying to help. Some mornings, we hear very moving evidence from people and families about their disabilities. We are trying to bring a spotlight to the challenges that exist, but we are also trying to get results and movement, whether is on the optional protocol, access to funding or implementation. This is one thing we need to single out and try to get a result on as quickly as possible, and that is what we should do from here. If the witnesses have any comments, I would be happy to take them, but I believe that is what we should do as a committee. I understand Mr. Tyndall had a technical issue but perhaps he wants to comment now.