Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I would also like to join in the praise for Independents 4 Change for bringing forward this motion. When the independent living movement started, the idea of a personal assistance was quite clear, that is, to give people with disabilities the freedom to live their lives to the full, whether that involved employment, moving around or generally living as best as they could compared to those without a disability. It was said recently that we are moving away from that to a system focused on compliance, regulation and bureaucracy, and that is all too true. The concept of personal assistance was not about help for less than one hour per day.

When I was in what was then the Department of Social Protection, the chief medical officer was adamant about one thing, namely, that if those with a disability were deprived of the opportunity to get involved in employment, they would face significant negative health effects that could only be remedied by giving them the opportunity to gain employment. It was for that reason that we introduced the partial capacity legislation, which allowed people to keep their invalidity pensions while still going to work. Not allowing someone with a disability to go to work due to a lack of personal assistance hours is locking them out from the ability to live a full life. Some others will not be able to get employment but still want to live a full social life. Significant damage is being caused to people who are unable to do that.

I listened carefully to what the Minister of State said. One of the disappointing things is what the Government does with most good proposals made in here at present. It is like playing handball against a haystack. The Government does not disagree with anything but the Minister of State did not say what it was going to do to address this issue. I listened to his speech very carefully. Can he tell us about the commitment to providing personal assistance hours? I do not want to hear about the millions and billions being thrown around because that does not address the problems for those with a disability.

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