Frank Fahey (Galway West, Fianna Fail)

The amendments seek to unite the functions of the assessment officer under section 8 and the liaison officer under section 11 under the title "needs officer". While I have certain sympathy with the thrust of the arguments put forward, the House will be aware that an assessment officer has statutory independence to identify the individual needs arising from an assessment without regard to resources. The DLCG argued forcibly that the person who carries out the assessment should be independent of the person who provides the service. If the same persons did the two jobs, there would be an inevitable tendency to match assessments to available resources. It was specifically at the demand of the DLCG that we made the assessment officer statutorily independent so that the assessment would not in any way be affected by or predicated on resources. The liaison officer on the other hand must take a range of practical considerations into account to determine how needs can best be met within the resources available. To do this the liaison officer would be operating as part of the HSE, taking into account the practical limitations that exist in providing services. The two roles are fundamentally different. I hold the view that it is in the best interests of people with disabilities that they remain separate.

I take the point made by Deputy Stanton and other Deputies that to ensure we have a seamless system that is not overly bureaucratic both roles could be combined in the person of a needs officer. The whole thrust of the roll out of the regulations is such that every effort would be made to ensure a person-centred approach to the assessment, the liaison role and the creation of the service statement.

In the roll out of the regulations the HSE is most anxious to ensure that the least possible bureaucracy is in place so as to ensure a seamless approach to those roles. It is important given the demand of the disability organisations that we do retain the statutory independence of the assessment officer from the more practical implementation role that the liaison officer will have. I have listened carefully to what was said. We are in discussion with the HSE on how this would happen. I did promise to keep the House informed of the progress that is being made and I hope to be in a position to refer to some of that at a later stage in the debate this afternoon or tomorrow.

I congratulate Deputy Catherine Murphy on her election to the House. In one of her first contributions she has raised the important issue of the impact of the embargo on the appointment of staff in this area. I will ask the Department of Health and Children to give us specific advice on the issue raised. The embargo applies across the spectrum. However, due to the major reorganisation of the health service that is taking place under the HSE which will bring about a reduction in certain kinds of posts it will facilitate the creation of posts in the disability sector. I accept her point and will refer the issue to the Department of Health and Children. As the debate proceeds I will keep her informed as to how the embargo will impact on the appointment of staff to extra posts, which as she stated have been approved by the Department of Finance as a result of the investment package in this sector. All of us want to ensure that if posts are approved we can get around the embargo difficulties in some way. I will address the matter on foot of further advice from the Department of Health and Children.

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