Jerry Cowley (Mayo, Independent)

I do not know where to stop — the bypass. There are many different ways that the money could be raised without even having to increase anyone's taxes, since so much is wasted. The bottom line is that so much money is wasted in the system that those essential services for disabled people do not exist. It is extremely demoralising for disabled people or for anyone dealing with them in the services to have to beg for every penny or little service that they get, things to which they are absolutely entitled and that should be there to put disabled people on the same level as the able-bodied. That is what this Disability Bill is about. The Government went to great trouble to get a forum together of disabled people and those associated with them to propose what they thought the best way forward, but it turned its back on the forum completely by refusing to take on board its very valuable recommendations.

This Bill is totally and utterly dependent on resources. If one had everything that this Government has wasted, one could certainly have a great many very important changes in society essential to disabled people. The Minister of State is disingenuous when he says the money is not available. I certainly know where it would come from, and I would start with the Government and what it has wasted.

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