Ms Shelly Gaynor:

I definitely echo that as someone who has been using the service. Whether we like it or not, it is because of that medicalisation that people are very reluctant to apply. People have emailed me and have told me they have QQI qualifications or a healthcare assistant qualification but that does not interest me. What interests me as a person, because that is what I am, is that I get someone into my home who I connect with. I do not really care whether someone has a QQI qualification. Showing someone how to use a hoist can be done. Everyone who decides they want to use the PA service is able to articulate what they need. We are well able to speak our minds. I am well able to tell somebody what they need to do. There is the fear of the HSE and of service providers as they do not allow me to be me. They tell me, as a service user of a PA, that anybody coming into my home should have a QQI. I have had some amazing PAs. I had an ex-garda, a florist and many great people who would have absolutely no interest in getting a healthcare qualification. It came up with my service provider, because two of my staff did not have the famous QQI qualification. When I said it to them that they would have to get that qualification to maintain their jobs with me, they both categorically told me they would leave if they had to get a QQI. Not everyone is academic and not everyone is into going to college. For me, as a disabled person, and for many of the members of ILMI, we want someone who we connect with, who has a bit of cop on and who can take direction. If someone is a PA and wants to get a healthcare qualification, that is their prerogative. However, as Mr. Walshe said, it stops an awful lot of people applying for the job because one hears people say it is a calling. Why is it a calling to be somebody's arms and legs? There are some people who are very dedicated to what they do and to helping.

My PA, who is with me today, has been with me for five years. She happens to have a HCA qualification but, as I said to her when I met her, that does not interest me. It does not make a person more favourable for the PA role than if they swept the streets. That is the fear. We are not medicalised and we should not be medicalising disability. When we put barriers like that in place even before somebody can join a provider, then it turns people off. All of us in the disability movement face difficulties getting PAs.

There is not one person who is not struggling to get a PA in the door and it is because of the qualifications. Another reason is where people live. The service provider may decide they only get two hours. Another person who lives down the road - let us call him "Joe" - and is a bit easier to get to may get more hours. Qualifications are great for the individual if that is what they want as the employee. However, they can stop people applying for what can be a great job. People can travel the world, depending on what they do. We are stopping people from getting a very good job. If I had my way, I would not stipulate that PAs need a qualification because right now everybody is struggling whether they are from Dublin or Donegal. It does not matter whether the allocation of hours is five hours or a 105 hours, we are all struggling to get staff and that is across the board. If it is stipulated that a person must have this or that, then it will make things more difficult and disabled people cannot live an independent life.

That is why disabled people think they cannot get a PA. They have a fear of being left in the bed because the provider will say they cannot somebody to them today. That is the reality. Many service users cannot live their lives. Many of our members have children. They are mothers or fathers and they cannot bring their children to the park for a walk or attend an after-school activity because they do not have personal assistant hours or they have not been prioritised. That is what they want to do with their hours but they are being told "Joe" down the road needs to be fed at a certain time, so they must wait. Therefore, everyone suffers, including the whole family. That is not good enough in 2023. If a PA service is offered, then it must be a real PA service and it must allow a disabled person to do what they choose to do or choose not to do.