Mr. Owen Collumb:

I am delighted to be invited here today to speak on personal assistant services to individuals with disabilities. Not so long ago, others would have been invited to speak on my behalf and to give their opinions on my life and the service I receive.

What is a personal assistant service and what does it mean to me? Personal assistant services allow people with disabilities to engage in everyday activities similarly to our non-disabled counterparts. The job of a personal assistant is not just to assist with our care needs like eating, dressing and household duties but also involves assisting with daily activities at work, school, or college and provides people with disabilities a full, meaningful position in the community.

On the international approach to personal assistant services, the right to live independently and to be included in the community is set out in Article 19 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, to which we have recently signed up. State bodies are obliged to put into effect measures to facilitate this right by ensuring that people with disabilities have access to a range of home services and other community supports, like personal assistant services, so as to be supported to live independently in the community.

On the distinction between PA services and other services, there are some key characteristics of a PA service that make it different from traditional care services to people with disabilities. First, the service user or the leader is the customer or employer. They choose who works for them and the working schedule of that individual. The service users customise the service around themselves. The funding follows the person and not the service provider. The person with the disability is not a passive recipient of the service but is engaged fully in the decision making process. This is a key characteristic of any quality personal assistant service.

In recent times, we have seen a move towards direct payments as a support method for people with disabilities. Currently a draft report on the personal assistance package is before the Minister of State with responsibility for disability services. This will hopefully provide more choice and control for people with disabilities and their personal assistance packages. We in the Áiseanna Tacaíochta movement have also moved towards a personal assistant model. We commissioned NUI Galway to carry out a report on how our model is working. Some of its recommendations are highlighted in our presentation. The report shows the positive outcomes when people have choice and control over their own funding and their personal assistance packages. The key recommendations from this report are that every person with a disability in Ireland should be afforded the opportunity to direct his or her own personal assistant service and there should be a single assessment tool to evaluate each individual's right to a personal assistance package. As movement from one CHO area to another has been very difficult and bureaucratic, this should be improved and finally, personal assistance packages and funding should be extended to providing aids and appliances for ourselves to live more independently.

I will now hand over to my colleague, Ms Eileen Daly, who will explain further how personal assistance packages have made our lives much easier.