Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Thursday, 23 March 2023
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Disability Matters
Inadequate Personal Assistance Supports: Discussion
Ms Olive Hanley:
That is exactly it. As Ms. O'Neill mentioned, I have personally met some people who found the task of being an employer - Ms Gaynor referenced earlier that delegating the task was the preference - to be quite onerous. Some people have said they would prefer to go back to a home support model and use the home support for a PA role. We have facilitated that in some cases. The Leader programme is probably a good example of where it works well and there are supports, including peer support, as Ms Gaynor has described. Some people find it quite onerous to find people and to access staff. That is a significant issue. It works for some people. We need a few different models. We need the companies or agencies the Deputy referenced when she said someone had to go to Donegal. It is quite bureaucratic to be an employer as the health and safety legislation, HR issues and so forth must be complied with. It is a lot to ask of someone who is employing two or three people. Challenges like that have come up. Some people have no issue with it. They are fine and it works well.
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