John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

There are community organisations throughout the country, in both urban and rural settings, that are providing a valuable service to people in this category, enabling them to participate somewhat in the activities of that community and in society. Without that service, which involves being collected by a bus or organised transport and being brought to the community centre, they would be prisoners in their own homes and would not be able to enjoy the activities that are being provided. The Government would pay a hell of a lot more if these people ended up in institutionalised settings or in need of further care in their homes. These community organisations are doing the Government a service and the least we could do is go some of the way towards assisting them in what they are doing. Any responsible Government taking care of its weaker citizens would reach out to them in the context of this provision in the Finance Bill and assist them.

Deputy McGrath's amendment simply asks for a report on some of these matters. I asked on Committee Stage if the Minister would consider reviewing the other area of the primary medical certificate, how people make applications and so on. Even at this stage of the day, we still have not received some of the information requested at that committee meeting. I mentioned it to one of the Minister's officials who said that it was being prepared today and that the Minister was signing off on it but we still have not received it. It may have come by email in the past while but my point is that a commitment was given to provide us with the necessary information which would inform our Report Stage debate. It might have eliminated the need for some of the discussion around these amendments but we did not get that information. I do not think that is fair play.

In terms of the amendment before us, the request made on Committee Stage was that the Minister would give us the opinion of the Department, his own opinion or the policy being pursued with regard to primary medical certificates and all of this area. Can it be loosened up? Can we be of more assistance in the context of these schemes? I ask the Minister to look at that scheme again and to look at the amendment before us.

8 o’clock

He must try to understand people in rural communities in particular, but also in urban centres, and give them an opportunity to have a reasonable outlet in their lives, provided by communities in the context of a bus collection service, and allow them to qualify in some way for the scheme.

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