Mr. Reinhard Schäler:

It is right to look at the cost of patients or clients, beds and care, but there are additional costs around that. Mr. Grogan said what his wife is doing. I could say the same about Pat. Pat is running a company that provides carers for Pádraig. That is a full-time job. Both Pat and I gave up our day jobs, in which we were doing productive work that we could still be doing. We cannot do that work, however, because there are no services to help us to look after our son. It is not just our case; it is everybody else's cases, including those in the Gallery. It is not just the person directly affected by the incident; it is the whole family - the partners, parents, daughters and sisters. It is everybody. There is a huge cost to society in that regard that is sometimes overlooked.

Our personal experience is that the waiting list at the NRH is not three to six months. We went to Germany. When Pádraig had the accident on Cape Cod, he came back to Dublin and eventually was seen by consultants. We were told there would be a waiting time of a year. We have heard that from other clients in An Saol Foundation as well. They are waiting for over a year. The time at the NRH was predetermined. It was not dependent on the condition of the person. Everybody who was severely affected was going to get three months. Those three months were not so much about getting the people better. They were getting some clinical interventions but it was not to get them better; it was to assess them. They wrote two books that explained it. They basically planned the rest of their lives, so that when they were going to the nursing home, the nursing home would know how to feed them, how to position and transfer them and all that kind of stuff. That took just three months. In some cases, a home care package was arranged. That was what the three months were for. After that - there has been scientific research on this - these people fall off a cliff. That is it. Once you get out of there, forget about it.

There is a need for an ongoing service in the community. There are stacks of reports metres high. A review that looked at our service in detail probably cost the best part of €100,000 to produce. That review made recommendations and we are ready to deliver them. Why are we not allowed to do this? It is difficult to understand that. We have many people to help us to do what is needed, what people have told us is needed and what the families are looking for. What they have experienced is a really good service. Let us do it. What we need is the funding for next year to start building this centre that will co-ordinate centres throughout the country, not just in Dublin.

It is not just a clinical approach. We are talking here about human rights. We are talking about the convention. I have before me a full page of laws that are potentially being breached. You could look at the Constitution, European legislation or international legislation. They all demand that people with disability, whatever the level of disability, have the same rights as the people who are sitting here. Imagine your husband, wife, son or daughter was in a situation like that and you were told, "If he does not get better, we will just keep him comfortable." That breaks your heart. It is hard to imagine anything worse. Of course, interventions have to be paid for, but people have a right to those interventions.

We talk about equality, integration, participation and all of these things. It is possible to do it; we have shown it is possible. Pádraig goes to concerts and to Germany to visit family there. We go swimming. People can do all of that but they need the right support to do so. We have them but they need a push over the line. Hopefully, the committee can help us with that.