Colm Burke (Fine Gael)
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I thank the witnesses for their presentations and all the work of their various organisations in giving support to people with disabilities. In his presentation, Mr. Brian O'Donnell referred to the education system. One of the issues I have come across over the past few months is the difference between the primary and secondary education systems. While there are a lot of supports at primary school, we are running into difficulty at second level. The same degree of support is not there. What is Mr. O'Donnell's experience of that issue? Is there a deficit in the second level sector, or coming from the Department?

I presume all the organisations represented here will have experience of trying to get a policy change that has been made at national level implemented at local level. There can be resistance to bringing about such change. The witnesses might outline their own difficulties with that. I have come across it quite a bit with a number of organisations, both the health services and local authorities. Even though the policy clearly sets out what road we are going down, implementing it is extremely slow and difficult. For example, we built a brand new facility costing €15 million, and because it was going to bring about some change, we could not get people to move into it for a period of eight or nine months. There was a stand-off over how it would be managed. How can we work more comprehensively with people to get a faster implementation of national policy?

I also want to touch on the role of disability officers in local authorities. Every local authority seems to have a different interpretation of that role. Some believe the disability officer identifies changes that are needed for access to public buildings. Others believe he or she is a reference point for people with disabilities, to help them deal with any issue, whether it be a matter of housing, access to services or access to public buildings. That is my understanding of the role. In Cork, however, I had to refer a number of cases to the Ombudsman because there was a lack of action by a local authority in dealing with disability issues. There was one case in which the parents of a child with intellectual and physical disabilities had received a letter from the local authority in July 2008 that their house needed to be adapted. It was a local authority house. Six years later, no work had been done. Only after the Ombudsman became involved was work done. I do not think anyone should have to go to that stage. The child had severe disability and had to be taken out of bed every morning to be looked after, and was being tube-fed. The parents were providing the care at home. Another State agency was providing housing that was inappropriate. What are the views of the witnesses on how to make the role of disability officers in local authorities more effective? I have raised the matter with the National Disability Authority and have made a number of freedom of information requests to individual local authorities. How can we ensure that the role of the disability officer is fully recognised and that people with disabilities know to contact them in respect of providing services and making changes that are needed?