Ruairí Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

For a fellow committee member who was speechless, I believe the Cathaoirleach’s comments caught everything. We are only synopsising what has been put in front of us and I agree with him that it is all very positive. We are talking about some of this, whether it is legislative frameworks, assistive technologies or whether there is a better transitional system where it can all be put in place and there would be very significant improvements. It goes without saying that we would all accept, having dealt with State agencies, the reasons for due diligence, strict criteria and rules, but we need flexibility if we are going to make some of these proposals work, whether it is the grant, for example, and identify where it is workable and useful to employers. That is before we get into the matters with respect to payments.

The whole idea of this is that we are finding out what best practice is and what works. We will put our findings in the report and the onus will then be on the Government and the Departments to deliver what citizens require.