Mr. Ger Deering:

It is possibly because there are too many people involved in the process, including different Departments and different Ministers. I welcome the fact that we have an interdepartmental group but my experience is that if one Department takes responsibility to deliver something there is a much better chance of it being delivered. When something involves a number of Departments it gets way too complex. The scheme we are talking about today might have a level of complexity within it but some of the other schemes were simple. They were administered locally and they were relatively successful, albeit there were problems with them but the problems with those schemes should have been solved. It would have been far better if the interim solution had been to fix the schemes that were there, at least the problems this office saw in them, while a new scheme was being devised. It was not reasonable to stop the schemes and stop anybody from applying for them while they were being perfected. We might never have perfection but we can do an awful lot better. Some of this has been made unnecessarily complex but it is not that complex. Certain people have certain needs and those needs should be met. We need to find the criteria and a fair, reasonable and equitable way of deciding who is entitled to these schemes but we are a long way from that.

I cannot give a definitive answer as to the reason for that. It is surprising that something so fundamental and so important to people with disabilities in this era would be ongoing for nine years. It is, to say the least, surprising and disappointing.