Tom Clonan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chair for allowing me to come in a second time. I want to apologise. I am on the health committee, which is why I have been coming and going.

I will pick up where we left off and the first principles of legislative rights for disabled citizens. I am concerned that the only legal right disabled citizens have at the moment is the legal right to an assessment of need and I hear a growing narrative from the Minister of State, Deputy Naughton, and the Minister, Deputy Foley, that that legal right to an assessments of need is causing a problem and that it is generating a demand for assessment of need. Earlier this year, the Minister of State said on “Ireland AM” that when assessments of need were carried out they even found that some people did not have complex needs and therefore it was a waste of an assessment of need. I find that language quite alarming. Yesterday, Cara Darmody was in the audiovisual room with Deputy Cullinane and they also expressed that fear that with the prospect of 25,000 children waiting on an assessment of need by the end of 2025, the Government may introduce legislation to remove that right. Is this something the witnesses are concerned about? Is it something they are aware of?

I introduced legislation which I hope to bring to Report and Final Stage before Christmas. It would make it a legal right for every disabled citizen to have all the personal assistance, the surgeries, interventions, social supports, housing and whatever that is set out in an assessment of need as is the case in other jurisdictions. The witnesses mentioned that we need to introduce reform on a legislative basis to bring Ireland in line with the UN convention and with other areas. There are two parts there.