David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)

These amendments are largely technical. I am not 100% sure what amendment No. 1 is supposed to achieve. Perhaps the Minister of State would explain. Judging from what he said in the Seanad this is a purely technical amendment and relates to section 2 not contradicting a part of section 1 when changed.

In amendment No. 2, the Minister of State is replacing the word "required" with "appropriate". It would be useful to know why that is being done. Perhaps the DLCG had something to do with it. However, it appears to weaken the legislation in that if funding is required it is up to the Minister of the day to judge whether it is appropriate.

The Bill would make sense if it included a provision in this section whereby funding was earmarked early in the year and then ringfenced so that it could not be used for anything other than the services needed for people with disabilities. However, this is not the case, as the Minister of State made clear to me on Report Stage. Is it possible at this point for the Government to put that kind of structure in place? A judgment could then be made at the start of the year regarding the amount of money required to provide services for people with disabilities for that year. That money would then be made available and could not be touched by anybody except for those services. If the money ran out during the year, a supplementary budget could be introduced to top it up.

This section, however, goes the other way. There will be very little left for the services provided for in this Bill if a flu epidemic occurs and the HSE must use the funding. This huge cornerstone should be in place but it is not. The entire strategy is built on sand; it is a quicksand into which people can sink. This is the Bill's major flaw.

We are discussing largely technical amendments and the changing of words. There are a number of amendments further along which some of us suggested on Committee and Report Stages and which the Minister has now taken on board. I would be interested in what he has to say about section 5, one of the key funding sections. It is specifically set up to protect the Minister, the Exchequer and the Departments so that nobody can say that the Department must spend a certain amount of money to help a child badly in need of a service. Until now the courts could do this and parents have had to go to court to get support and services for their children. However, that will not be possible under this section. It will preclude people from going to court and the courts will be unable to make a judgment to provide a service. That is what people are saying about this section.

The Minister of State has said many times that he does not want the courts to tell him, the Government or the HSE what to do. Heretofore citizens had no choice but to go to court to get rights for their children and for other adults. Hopefully the situation will change but unless the funding is sufficient and ringfenced, it will all be built on sand. I hope it works for the sake of the people who deserve and need services and supports from the State in order to achieve a quality of life that gives them dignity and respect. That is what we all wish for.

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