Dr. Cara McDonagh:

I am not sure about working under the existing scheme again, to be honest. It was a really difficult decision for us to reach. We felt we had been back and forth with the Department and really tried to push. For want of a better phrase, we stomped our feet and said we would not do it. When the Department put the criteria into legislation we stated we would not do it, but then agreed to do it on the basis that the Department would do something about it. Nothing happened, however, and it just got too much. We believed the only way to make change was to pull back from it. We did not do so without thinking of the people who then would not be able to attend for appeal. We granted only a small percentage of overall applications but there is no other appeal mechanism. Applicants can go through the assessment process after six months in the community but it would still be better if we were running appeal clinics. Since we resigned, there have been meetings of the subgroup but, as the Deputy pointed out, there has only been one meeting of the national disability inclusion strategy working group tasked with this. I believe that impetus is lacking. If there was such an impetus, maybe we would reconsider. I do not know. I cannot commit to that.