Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The €4 million is in the context of the economic situation in which we find ourselves and the enormous budget we spend on disability. As Deputy O'Brien rightly stated, it is about pulling it all together and genuinely taking a serious look at how we bring all of it together under one roof. We would definitely have better outcomes as a result. It is not about saving money, it is about getting a better outcome.

With regard to the budget, I managed to secure a cut of only 1.2% when everything else was being cut by 4% or 5%. We discussed this at length with those who operate in the disability sector and they have been doing a tremendous job in recent years under difficult circumstances. They told me if we could manage to keep the overall cut low they could manage much of what needs to be done, but this can only continue for a certain length of time. As I stated in my reply, even if we had €10 million to spend this year on school leavers, which we do not, I am not certain there is capacity in the organisations themselves to take on all of these people. We need to take a serious look at this. In response to Deputy O'Brien, we have managed to map all of what is available and this is a significant first step in how we reconfigure the service, but the service does need to be reconfigured.

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