Mr. Brian Smyth:

To address Deputy Buckley's question, flexibility in the systems is one issue. Personalised budgets certainly give people choice in advance of employment, but it also about flexibility in the systems, such as community employment, CE. In the past, people could get their disability payment and CE payment together. That ended with the crash. Those kinds of things were there but have changed over time.

It is about focusing and investing in people and allowing flexibility. All our lives change. We need to front-load more investment for people with disabilities when they are in the education system and when they transition after school into training, further education and employment. If we have a happy, fulfilled citizen for the vast majority of his or her life, and that individual may need more supports later in life, as we all will, that person becomes independent and an active, contributing citizen. People with disabilities have rights. The rights-based approach Deputy Cairns mentioned is absolutely the way to go, but a person cannot have a right unless there is flexibility in the budgets to make those choices to give an individual those rights. That is what the system has been finding it difficult to do.

When innovation comes along, we have found we are up against it. A lot of money, some €80 million, is going into disability service provision but the cost and value of what that delivers is key. We know when people get choice, they make good choices for themselves. These are not always perfect choices but they make choices that are good for them. We still do not have access to that in the way we should. That flexibility relates to the systemic arrangements for social welfare payments, electronic data systems, and rehabilitative training, RT, placements. People have no choice but to take the RT placement they are given, especially in rural areas where there is limited or maybe no provision. When somebody gets a choice, that person is very innovative. We believe in flexibility, both in the current systems and in innovation, and allowing people to come in to look at the real value of rights-based approaches, if there is proofing on the delivery for an individual and investing in people.

We have documented the empowering process that happens in social farming. We have a number of these reports on our website that relate to the mental health service, people with disabilities and young people. We can see and are reporting and researching how individuals change in the way they view life, the choices they will make and how the system can support them with innovation. There is a significant empowering process when people are seen as citizens as opposed to different. That is certainly happening on farms.