Ms Aoife O'Toole:

I wish to add to what Ms Loughlin said. We are already on the journey to offer some hope. The demonstration project on personalised budgets is one of those ways we can learn to do things differently. We need to invest in it because families are on that journey alone. They are not connected and are not sharing their learning with each other. The HSE is developing its action plan. We could insert into that supporting new and innovative ways of working. We could set some targets and look at partnering differently with social enterprises and some of the emerging entities that can deliver services in a different and perhaps better way while we are still trying to fix the system.

Take the example of Covid-19. The HSE did not develop the Covid tracker app; it partnered with other industry experts that use technology and digitalisation. They got together and looked at the problem, what the options were and how it could be fixed. They decided to create a minimum viable product, get it out and test it. Those methods are ways that can help us in the disability area and offer some hope. We are on that path. There is a huge amount of expertise in Ireland because there was massive investment from 2010 to 2020 whereby we learned from other countries. There are family bodies that have been on this journey and that know how to do what is different. There are new organisations in the marketplace now. We are there, but we cannot be risk averse and the system has to support that. When I was working in services, trying to do something different was very difficult. If anything, the system pulls and sucks one back into its way of working because that is what systems do. We have to be brave and courageous and use the mechanisms we have now, invest in the projects and other things we are testing and share the stories of what is possible, as well as hearing about all of what is not broken. There are many things that are working.