Gerard Murphy (Cork North West, Fine Gael)

Up to now there have been quite a number of initiatives which were good schemes per se. The disabled person's scheme was mentioned, but the fact is that it has not been available for a great many people with disabilities. It is being bogged down in bureaucracy in many local authority areas. New regulations were introduced to try to restrict the number of people who would qualify for the scheme. Local authorities ran out of money, so to speak, at another stage. People who needed to apply for funding to make basic improvements to their houses or in their work environment to improve the quality of their daily lives could not get such funding because the necessary resources were not available or impediments to their obtaining it were put in their way by increased bureaucracy. This process will have to be followed in dealing with the "supposed" entitlements of people with disabilities from now on. In this regard, a question that was asked earlier is crucial, namely, whether the complaints officer must take resources into account. If he or she does, the process we are going through, to a certain extent, is futile because that was the case up to now.

See this speech in context