Mr. Martin Naughton:

I thank the committee for inviting us here. I am not going to stick to my script, but I ask Members to read it. I am someone who normally talks off the cuff; that is why I end up in so much trouble a lot of the time. I could spend all day talking to members about there not being enough personal assistance, PA, hours. I agree with all that Chris Macey said and I could elaborate on his points. However, what I want to say to members more than anything else is that it is not the money that we do not have but the money that we have that is most important. I do not know whether the figure for disability services is €1.3 billion or €1.4 billion or some other amount in that order. I have 60 years experience of living with disability and working in all aspects of it, through which I earn a reasonable living. The difficulty I have is that although the support to people with disabilities is provided for, when the services are provided, usually what happens is that people and families are made even more dependent. The reality is that people can never have enough and the State cannot continue to provide the services. How do I know that? The same situation is arising in every other state across Europe.

I am sure that members are familiar with the UNCRPD, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. There is much debate about that and we are waiting on one more piece of the jigsaw to come together.

All that says a number of different things. Services must be provided in a form of support. That form of support must be a form of empowerment, choice and building and developing people with disabilities to understand their rights and responsibilities. If we do not do that, we will continue to have funding and more funding, so I urge many of those here to stand back. The policies within the Department are nearly right but there is a lot more to be done.

We need to look at how we fund people with disabilities. If we move to Australia, we have the national disability insurance scheme. We should be discussing at European level and should be in search of a Commissioner for disability. We should be getting European-wide support. Disability occurs right across Europe. We may think it is a subsidiary point but it is not. I urge members to step back and think about how we spend such valuable money. I am very mindful of the figure today, which I understand is €77 billion on the wrong side of the equation.