Erin McGreehan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I apologise as I had to go to the Seanad and missed the previous question-and-answer session. Every week we are very clear here that the entire system needs a dramatic shake-up and great change. We are stuck in the medical model of benefit and allowance and people always having to convince someone that they need something. It is deplorable. We hear it week in, week out and we constantly push for change. It is clear to me that benefits and allowances should be changed to a social activation fund or an economic activation fund. Each individual is an entity in him or herself and has an ability to spend money and make money. Such a fund would allow this to happen. The committee is very clear that the restrictive nature of the benefit allowance, and how it is made and set up, puts people at a disadvantage constantly. It is a State-sanctioned poverty cycle. People are damned if they do and damned if they do not so they stay at thestatus quo.

Many of my questions have been covered. The personal toll on Mr. Meere must be great. Unfortunately this is not unusual. I hear it constantly. People are prohibited from doing the best they can do or from doing what they want to do. We do not all have to do our best, we just all have to do what we want to do. We are here because of the person, as opposed to the big institutions.

How does the current set-up restrict Rehab in providing a leg-up and support to get people into gainful employment or proper employment? How does Rehab see the move towards individualised budgets? How would this support people? People could choose to do something with their own authority and in their own way. They could push from there.