Ms Amy Hassett:

I will touch on a number of these questions. We have been advocating for quite a while, that is, for more than a year or a year and a half at least, for the removal of means testing of disability allowance and having the allowance regarded as a cost of disability payment. It will not solve all the problems but doing so would go a significant way. Individualised support is very important and would be a good starting point.

We have a major issue with pensions in that once someone reaches the age of 65 years, across the board in all disability supports, they are no longer considered disabled and are just considered to be old. This is creating major barriers, which Ms Ní Fhlatharta did not get to address. The transitioning of supports between childhood and adulthood is a challenge, but so is the transition from adult to old age, which may not be the most appropriate way of handling matters. It is consistently reported to us as being a significant barrier. As for how we do pensions, we also need to consider the cost of disability. It could be something different, like preventing a person from being aged out of the disability allowance, which might be the most direct way we deal with that. Again, this would not be the entire solution but most certainly would be part of it.

Moving towards personal assistance services, which are more tailored and afford disabled people a lot more control over the support they receive, is the way we need to be looking at it. Home care can be quite restricted and prescriptive in terms of the supports a person is provided with. We want something that is more flexible and puts disabled people at the centre so they can decide what they need help with. Home care does not necessarily meet those requirements but Ms Ní Fhlatharta will probably speak more to that.