Mr. Garry Toner:

I thank the joint committee for giving me the opportunity to contribute. I will deal briefly with the lived experience of having personal assistants. I have a team of four personal assistants working with me and they assist with everything daily. Previously I attended UCD to pursue a master's degree. I had a team of personal assistants while I was doing so.

It is important to note the difference between personal assistants and carers and home helps. Personal assistants assist people. They do not have to care for me, worry about me or look after my needs. I interviewed my personal assistants and then employed them. Three of them have been with me for ten years, while the other guy has been with me for five and a half years. It is important for me to engage in daily activities. For example, having completed the master's degree in UCD, I found a job as a disability officer in the Institute of Technology Tallaght. I have been working there for 12 years and on a regular day get up at 6.30 a.m. to go to work. I am one of those who gets up early to go to work. My personal assistant stays overnight and washes and dresses me and does everything everyone else takes for granted. I head to work at 8 a.m. I live on the Merrion Road and on average it takes an hour to get to Tallaght. The new personal assistant comes in at 8 a.m., drives me to work in my van and stays with me all day. As Ms Daly said, without my personal assistant, I would not be able to carry out my role as a disability officer in the Institute of Technology Tallaght. He assists all day in driving, preparing food, writing notes and so on, but I am still doing my job; he is there solely to assist. He drives me home in the evening when another personal assistant comes to prepare dinner. I then have some quality time for myself. For example, I go on the laptop just like everyone else, but I need a person to assist me, say, to get me a drink. If I need something, that personal assistant has to be there for me, as otherwise I would be unable to do anything because of my physical disability which is a form of spinal muscular atrophy.

I do not get up early at the weekend to go to work, but I engage in social activities. I go out to meet friends. My personal assistant drives me back and forth and, thankfully, I do not have to worry about public transport because I have my own van. I am glad that I do not have to rely on public transport. It all combines to give me a normal quality of life, just like everyone else. The personal assistants know exactly what they have to do. They know that they to not have to care for me and so on. They are told this at the beginning during the interview process and are worth it. That is why the personal assistant service is one of the most important issues. People hear about personal assistants and wonder what they do.

They are not quite sure what a PA really is. People often assume that my PA is my carer, but that is not the case. I understand that people do not realise there is a difference. When people refer to my PA as my carer, I explain to them what my PA does. I explain that I have employed him myself on foot of an entire process.