Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for their very enlightening opening remarks. I listened to the questions Deputy Ellis put. Members find that at times, there is a huge difficulty for people with disabilities, in that there are no clear pathways as to how they can get the supports they need to live independently. I do not know how this can be dealt with but there is a repeated request for people to prove they have a disability. There is not a standard way of assessing people's needs across the country. It is different in different locations. How can we have a more caring and understanding approach to people with disabilities? Part of this is that we are trying to provide supports to everyone without trying to provide individual supports to people who need them. It is a difficulty, in that we are taking a one solution fits all approach, which does not work with disabilities.

There are huge gaps. The idea of having people living independently, having a set up for them and what is being done in Cork is great. How does that become national policy? How can we help it become national policy and become a standard? How do we track the success or otherwise of the project as it evolves? If the service was to grow, how could it be monitored to make sure it is still delivering a high-class service and doing what it was set up to do? As we roll things out further and do them nationally, they get lost and we do not get the results for people with disabilities.

This may be is a cultural change we have to try to get around, and I am getting around it, but instead of looking people's disability, we should look at their different abilities. How do we harness that to have people living independently? One of the biggest fears families, especially parents, who have a member with a disability have is around what will happen when they pass away and who will be the person's guardian. Those are my thoughts. I thank the witnesses who may have some responses for me.