Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 16 May 2018

Committee on Public Petitions

Personal Assistant Services for Individuals with a Disability: Discussion

1:30 pm

Mr. Owen Collumb:

It must be a quality personal assistant service, otherwise I would not leave my home. I need to be back home at a certain stage. There are many hours during the day when I do not have a personal assistant service. That is almost downtime. I do what I can on the computer during that time while I wait for the other personal assistant to come in to get me something as simple as a drink of water. That is how essential this service is. The service cannot be spread too finitely throughout the whole disability sector, otherwise it would not be a personal assistant service and people will only get the crumbs of a service. It would not be a service.