Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

We had a good session in the first part of this committee. Listening to the witnesses and looking at their faces, I see the anger, frustration and hurt. We are not here to patronise. What is important is for the witnesses to tell their stories in the committee so they get into the media and people know what is going on. I was lucky enough in the previous term, back in 2016, to be mental health spokesperson for Sinn Féin and to sit on the disability committee. The witnesses are right. I cannot believe they are telling me again today that the responsibility is not there in any professional organisation and that somebody with a form of autism can be told they are going to mental health services when it is known for a fact those services will not touch any adult or child. I am well aware of that. We had to send people to England to get services at one point.

When I read Mr. Darmody and Cara's opening statement, I was angry, though maybe not as angry as they are because they are living this. They are spot-on that there has never been oversight, accountability or responsibility in the HSE. I have argued it for years. Things have changed a little. When I was mental health spokesperson and tabled in parliamentary questions to the HSE, there was not even a person's name at the bottom of a letter. You were getting a response from the Department but nobody was held accountable or responsible for that response and you could not chase it up. That is how things get lost in the paperwork.

The means test is bonkers, especially for somebody who passes the age of 18. It is an insult to families, who are stretched as it is. If they can get a GP, they have to pay him or her €60 or €70. I will get in trouble if I use my choice words in committee on that. It is indescribable.

There is something regarding means test for carers in certain families the Department does not tell you. We only learned this through a Topical Issue debate a number of weeks ago. There is a separate office in the HSE that can means test a family's situation one to one, where a commonsense approach comes in. They do not state that on the appeals letter, but it is there if you need it. All families and NGOs should be made aware of that.

It must be hard for Cara to come in here but she should be so proud of what she is doing. Only for my two brothers, I would not be sitting here . That was a different situation, however. On committees like this, we all have a personal interest. That makes us more driven. We are not very political in this. It is a personal committee. We will take everything on board. We have a motion ready to go. Our report will not sit on a shelf. The more information we get from the witnesses, as the professionals, the better. It is not the royal college of X, Y or Z but the people who have the lived experiences. They are the professionals. I ask witnesses to let us know if there is anything we can do, even outside the committee. I hear the anger and frustration. In the last one, it was great to hear the good news stories and now we are back to the reality of people being persecuted and locked in their own homes.

When I sat on the disability committee some years ago, we met families. Things have not changed. We met families who had to lock their children into the Alsatian cage in the kitchen for their own safety and for the family's safety. That has to be recognised. The terms "disability", "autism" and "mental health" are frowned upon. There is a stigma involved. You are a pain in the ass to society. They tell you to stop giving out because they are not listening. They do not see the human impact unless it affects them directly.