Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

We have heard different commitments at different times from this Government and the previous Government. There were reviews and a Cabinet subcommittee set up two years ago. The Minister for Finance was doing a review last January; I do not know if it is still going on or whatever. A year on from that, in January, there is another review and a group being pulled together by the Minister of State at the Department of Health, Deputy Anne Rabbitte. In 2013 we were told this would be reviewed and there would be a solution. That was said to us numerous times as parliamentarians across the political divide who were putting these questions. A memo went to the Cabinet about a new scheme four years ago but it was pulled and there is nothing there now.

Do the witnesses have any insight into what is actually happening? Is MABS involved with any of the discussions on what is happening here and now? If we get another big news story we will get another review, which would not be good. It is appalling. We have to put a face on this and know the person down the road who cannot leave the house without that type of support. We must put a face and name on it. Sometimes politics can be too unemotional but this should not be; there should be outrage and this should not go on any longer.

Do the witnesses have any insight into what is happening and the length of the review that was announced last month? Is MABS involved or being consulted at all? I thank the witnesses for their time.