Áine Collins (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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I welcome that. It is long overdue to judge by what we see in regard to accuracy and so on.

On a separate issue, in my constituency there is an area where service providers whose budget was cut have to manage an increase in salary. That means in real terms they are cut by 3% or 4% because they have to comply with the Haddington Road or Croke Park agreements, or whatever the case may be. This is having a huge effect on the ground. I have come across a real problem in respect of personal assistance for pre-school providers and have gone around the block on it. I thought the Department of Social Protection looked after this, or the Department of Children and Youth Affairs but I understand that the HSE does. To get a personal assistant depends on what county I am in and who the provider is. I know of three cases where four-year-olds who have serious physical disabilities are not being granted personal assistants.

Yet, if they lived in another part of the country, there would be no problem. By centralising the issuing of medical cards and discretionary medical cards at least we will have a fairer system. This is a huge issue. For these parents and these children next year is no good to them. While the HSE and the service-provider might be fighting over budgets and politics might be involved, that is no good to these four year-olds. I am struggling to get an answer to this and it is being raised as a Topical Issue matter in the Chamber today. There seems to be no one in charge or from what I can see, there seems to be no standardisation. I ask the witnesses to come back to me as a matter of urgency if they do not have an answer today.