Mr. Michael Meere:

That is a very good question. I have been in the National Rehabilitation Hospital in Dún Laoghaire on two occasions. It is a wonderful place.

Every intervention one could need and ask for is inside under one roof. Sometimes, when a person has a stroke or heart attack or anything like that and needs interventions, there is a timeframe for them to get those interventions. If they do not get them within that timeframe, there are very poor timeframe issues. Dún Laoghaire was great, but when I came home, I experienced the exact same thing. I had to fight to get physiotherapy. Psychology was basically important, but I could not get it where I live. I could not get it, plain and simple. It was not provided for. Occupational therapy, OT, was a non-runner for me. They came once and that was it. I had to fight for everything. I attended Acquired Brain Injury Ireland but that is not the same level of intensive intervention one needs. That timeframe is vital. We will take head injury as an example. Let us say a head injury happens this year. Recovery is not over in one year. It is not over in two or three years. From my own experience, it is not over in ten years. People need the interventions all along that path. The way it works in this country is that once a person has received them on a couple of occasions, he or she is kind of considered grand and they say, "Off you go". That is wrong.

Another point I need to make is that when I was in college, I had all of my accommodations and supports. When I was with the National Learning Network, I had them plus I had psychology, physiotherapy and all that. When I went from that to partial capacity, I was let into the workplace with not one support whatsoever. Not one person from social welfare or any other agency rang me and asked if I was okay or whether there was anything they could help with or any course I could do to make it a bit easier for me. It would have been great if they had contacted the employer too and asked the employer whether there was anything they could do to help this person to stay in employment in a longer timeframe. There is a total lack of supports in this country.