Professor Malcolm MacLachlan:

I thank the Deputy for the question. I agree with everything my colleague has said. It is important to emphasise that if people have a medical card that entitles them to free services, the problem is that the services are not there. Services are inequitable across the country. On the private side, it is certainly the case for some types of assistive technology that people can afford to purchase expensive technology but there is a lack of human resources with the expertise required to help them maintain or repair it if there are difficulties. That is true of both the public and private sides. I spoke earlier about an assistive product list. One of the key things for Ireland in establishing that list would be a parallel requirement to establish the support services that go along with the technology. There are different models in different countries, cutting across public and private. The first priority must be to ensure that the public system is working and if people wish to go outside of it, that should be an option.