Finian McGrath (Dublin Bay North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Margaret Murphy O'Mahony for her comments. I will work with all Opposition Members in improving services for people with physical and intellectual disabilities.

The establishment of a task force on personalised budgets is a key element of the commitment in the programme for Government to give people with disabilities greater control, independence and choice.

Personalised budgets transfer control back to the individual and give him or her the freedom to source the services and supports which best meet his or her needs. While the concept of personalised budgets is not limited to health and personal social services, my view is that the task force should concentrate on personalised budgets for services for people with disabilities funded by the HSE in the first instance. Some work has commenced on scoping how to introduce individualised budgets in health-funded disability services as part of the Transforming Lives reform programme. The task force will build on this work.

I am committed to setting up the task force as soon as possible. I am in the process of finalising my plans in that regard. I intend to inform the Government of my decision on who will chair the task force by the end of this month. I also intend to outline to the Government on that occasion my plans for the appointment of members of the task force and the development of terms of reference, objectives, scope and key deliverables. With the support of the Government, I will then proceed to appoint members and arrange for the first meeting as soon as practicable. Some of the groundwork in this regard has commenced. I have set myself clear targets. I have said this is one of the projects I want to be set up and to be up and running within 100 days of taking office. I think we have been in office for approximately 67 days. We are on target to get the project up and running. I will come back later with more details in this respect.

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