Dr. Emer Begley:

There was a HSE PA review group. It has not officially stopped but it has not met in some time. Its job was to develop a definition and model of personal assistance, and recommendations for legislative and policy change. The group produced a draft working definition of "personal assistance". Since then, there has been a commitment at a departmental level. There was work happening in the Department on the development of a PA model, but then things paused. Our understanding is that, due to the reconfiguration of the HSE into the health regions and the development of the national strategy, things have not realigned. There is a commitment in the strategy for the development of a PA model and within that, we would really call for a governance structure that includes disabled people, disabled persons' organisations, DPOs, civil society, and organisations in the community that are working at providing PA services because they have a huge amount of knowledge and expertise as well. That is in relation to the PA side but that PA review group has not met in some time.

On personalised budgeting, the National Disability Authority has an advisory group that would have good representation by stakeholders to support the review of personalised budgeting, but as others on the panel have said, the staffing for personalised budgeting is very small. It is nearly non-existent now in the HSE, with one not even full-time member of staff who looks after this area on a national level. Commitment needs staffing to drive it as well. There are the issues on the ground with PA pay alignment and terms and conditions, and staff are needed at a national level to drive the implementation of policy.