Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I go back to the Deputy's initial contribution. It is important to note, as the Attorney General points out in his report, that it is sometimes tempting to resort to generic stereotypes about the State being in some way unfair to its citizens when they are deprived of a benefit and bring legal proceedings challenging this deprivation, and that the logic behind such a perspective suggests that the State has unlimited resources, must concede every court case that is brought against it and must fund every claim for compensation or redress that is demanded of it. The fact that citizens have a legal entitlement to challenge decisions of the State before our independent Judiciary does not imply that all of those challenges are well-founded or that the State is not entitled to defend itself against legal challenge.

Governments must make hard choices all the time with finite resources, and the requirement to defend litigation that seeks to challenge those choices inevitably follows.

It is important to once again emphasise that these issues are historical. Over the period from 1999 to 2007, entitlement to full disability allowance was gradually extended by the Government of the time to people resident in institutional care settings. This shows that successive Governments sought to expand access and funding in a progressive manner. The track record of the Government over recent budgets shows that we have taken concrete steps to support people with disabilities. I assure the House that this remains a firm Government priority. The Ministers for Health and Social Protection will now consider the report and revert to the Government within three months. I thank the Deputy for raising this matter and look forward to engaging further with her and others on this issue in due course.

See this speech in context