Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It is still not clear when the board first raised concerns about this. It appears the Minister has only met the board once in the five years he has held responsibility. Maybe he can clarify that. Forget about the board of appeals. Has the Ombudsman not been raising this directly with the Minister? The Ombudsman made clear that he wrote to the Minister for Finance and the Minister with responsibility for disability matters in 2017 repeating concerns about the eligibility criteria having a particularly narrow focus and being overly prescriptive. In January 2020, there was supposed to be a special Cabinet meeting on disability issues. There was correspondence to the Secretary General but no action. People with severe disabilities were found to be grounded and unable to get out of their homes. There was no action. The board of appeals, all medical professionals, resigned en massebecause there was no action and the Minister, as he has said, did not meet their expectations. That is a terrible situation. As we speak, there are people out there whose appeals cannot be heard. These are children and adults with disabilities.

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