Dr. Joanne McCarthy:

I thank everybody for the engagement and how people have come to the table to discuss the issue. I will pick up on something said by Senators Burke and Dolan. One of the greatest challenges we will face is taking the independent review group's report down off the shelf. It is already gathering dust. That is the biggest threat. The independent review group's report is essential for delivering Sláintecare. We can pull at the heartstrings on the value of these organisations.

We could have 20 people with disabilities telling us the level of their need for personal assistance, which they are not getting. There are core essential services they do not get. That level of need is not being recorded. We have to ensure that this committee understands how important it is to ensure that the report is taken off the shelf and stitched into Sláintecare and that it is not just used to respond to existing deficits. I am not saying there are no deficits. We heard that at a recent meeting of the committee on 19 June and we have heard it today. There are deficits in the delivery of the existing quantum of service. It needs to reshape our understanding of what is a really valuable service to people with disabilities, considering how to expand the role of community services and make them link seamlessly with primary and acute services so that the person with a disability, that horrendous diagnosis of some condition, can be confident that the resources will be there to support them and their family. I acknowledge the work of the committee in highlighting this and I encourage it to take the report off the shelf, get the forum established and the charter agreed and find a way to truly sketch out the list of essential services.