Ms Geraldine Fitzpatrick:

That is correct. Before that time there were wider Government issues around whether the Department of Health should be in the business of making payments that are in the nature of allowances at all. The HSE is not equipped to pay income or allowances on a monthly basis to people. That is not part of our core competency. The community welfare officers were transferred to the Department of Social Protection with that form of allowance that used to be part of the old health boards. The administrative systems and also the policy on people with disabilities were evolving during this period, when they were not regarded as a sector apart. There was also the whole principle around mainstreaming. The question we are trying to grapple with is not how to pay supports to all of these people but, in the context of mainstreaming, how to provide a transport system that people with any type of disability, whatever their age, who require the system can access.

Deputy Peter Mathews asked about the limitations. One of the key limitations is the figure of €10 million and another is that it must be done in a fair, equitable and legal way. That is the question that appears clear in its import but when one tries to tease it out that is where the difficulty arises. We need to arrive at solutions, as the Minister of State said, that will be at local level, using all of the systems currently in place. For example, last year alone the Department paid €400,000 to various organisations for specialised transportation for those with disabilities and older people. All of the individual supports need to be coalesced into something meaningful that fulfils a policy of mainstreaming in order that people with disabilities, whatever their age, can access them when they need it. It also takes account of the fact that people get special assistance if they need to go to hospital. There is special transport for people to access education. Many of these supports are in place. The challenge is to see what coherence we can bring across the entirety of all those supports.