Erin McGreehan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome all our guests this morning. The PA campaign was one of the first issues about which I met with a former colleague of those in Independent Living Movement Ireland, Mr. James Cawley. I am sure he is sadly missed in their organisation.

I suppose the PA is a great liberator. It is the equaliser. Article 19 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, UNCRP, asks that at the core of independent living and inclusive life in community for people with disability is that the person have control over how he or she wants to live. Then we look at the reality. What the HSE outlines, and the ESRI has well outlined in its reports, is that the HSE has control of how an individual lives. That is clearly a completely inadequate service.

We now have disability services moving into the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth. What we all want, and the rationale for that Department movement, is that we look towards a rights-based model and move away from the medical model when it comes to disability services. What actions is the HSE taking now to look at its services under the lens of the rights-based model because there is a new game in town now under a new Department? We have to be serious about this. The committee is working towards the ratification of the optional protocol. It should be ratified already. The HSE has to stand up and create the pathways and the reality that we look at disability services in a rights-based model. What is the HSE doing to make that real change for so many people of whom Ms Gaynor spoke?

I have a question for the ILMI. The HSE mentioned there that it does not want a standard assessment process because we need to take account of the individual and flexibility. I ask it to elaborate on that and for that contradiction to be thrashed out a little. It would be helpful.

Ms Gaynor spoke clearly about her experience of PA services. Dr. Carroll spoke about people having to fight for these. Ms Gaynor is that leader who fought and got her services and speaks about the people who are not getting the services. How do we reconcile that lack of and wish for standardisation? Everyone's needs are equal. We all have an equal need to get up in the morning, to go out to work, to travel to school, to socialise, to live. How do we reconcile those two things?

I have a question for Dr. Carroll. The PA budget is small spending in disability services. Has the HSE done a cost-benefit analysis? Is there any information on increasing the spending on PA services and the resulting reduction of costs in other parts of the services because that individual is living a fulfilled life and is able to thrive and survive?

I apologise for jumping to and fro. Going back to a rights-based model and discrimination, we see across different sections that the HSE is quite ageist. When you look at neuro-care, for example, you do not get employment support if you are over 65 in many places. There is different care. Age is a grounds for discrimination. I am wondering has a case ever been taken because it is clear that to cut off someone's opportunities at 65 seems incredibly wrong. My father is 78 and he is working full time because he wants to.

Public bodies such as the HSE have a public sector duty to reduce discrimination under the legislation that established the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission, IHREC, and they are supposed to report every year. Has the Department or section on disabilities worked on that public sector duty to look at where it is discriminating and where it needs to reduce discrimination on age, disability and all the different grounds for discrimination?