Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

-----to ensure this is changed and that something happens. That is the very least that they could do.

Mairéad Enright said something very clear in her article in The Journal, that "the State is a peculiar ... defendant because it is the plaintiff’s protector as well as ... [the] opponent". That should mean the State must behave as a model litigant in cases against ordinary citizens but it has not. It has been said by all of the Deputies here that it has been a David and Goliath story where the State has taken on the most vulnerable, the weakest, the poorest, the sickest and the ones without the intellectual or physical ability to be able to challenge the State on an equal par.

This is definitely the David and Goliath story of the century as far as the State is concerned, which has been repeated in other cases.

I will reference what the Disability Federation of Ireland, DFI, stated:

The line taken by the State to stop the disability maintenance payment on admission to long-term care and the subsequent legal approach and lack of State action to address the discrepancy is particularly distressing when the people affected were often living with significant disability and not in a position to advocate for themselves.

[...]

DFI is now calling for: The identification of ... [the 12,000 or so who are] impacted through the planned review.  ... this number ... [can] be confirmed ... [through] historical records.

[A] Trust [needs] to be established ... [through] this process and ... undertaken in a transparent and timely way with appropriate communication ... [to] those [who are] impacted [and their families].

An examination of ... [this] issue ... handled in the intervening years [has been inadequate].

A process of statutory repayment [needs to be put in place].

Deputy Tully came up with a great idea. Let the State pursue those who manufactured defective blocks, and who gave us more than 100,000 apartments and homes and the mica scandal in County Donegal. The Government should pursue them and get the cash it is so preciously minding on behalf of the taxpayer back into the coffers of the State so it can look after people with disabilities and people too old and sick to defend themselves in nursing homes. Let the State pursue the religious orders and the church, which have underpaid by a huge amount their alleged, supposed and requested contribution to the redress scheme for historical abuse cases. That is a brilliant idea. If the State did that, it would prove itself not to be a Goliath but that it is trying to treat equally all people and all the children of the nation who live in this State.

However, that is not going to happen. The Minister and I, and everybody else in the House, know it will not happen. Instead, the Attorney General, in the most class-biased report of any from the State, made not just a legal but political defence of the legacy we are talking about. He said the State litigation strategy it had to have to protect the State coffers is not sinister or abnormal in any way. If a secret litigation strategy was used against vulnerable and poor people, and it is not abnormal, then it must be normal. If it is normal, then that is a huge class bias fault on the part of the State against the people who dwell in this country. The Attorney General went on to say: "Any suggestion that a "secret litigation strategy" ... is in some way improper betrays significant unfamiliarity with the civil litigation process". Of course it does. I am a Deputy but I am not familiar with the civil litigation process. How is somebody with an intellectual or physical disability, or with Alzheimer's or dementia who is living in a nursing home, meant to be familiar with the civil litigation process?

The State has gone beyond what it tries to do in these instances. When the Taoiseach said we did not have a legal leg to stand on, he was absolutely right. When questioned, the Government says the State had a responsibility to do what is right but it also had to protect the taxpayer and a balance had to be struck between the past and the future. The balance has not been struck. I hope the Government will fall over on both legs in losing its balance because what it has done here is outrageous, as is the fact it is standing over it. I hope those grey voters and others bring the chickens home to roost and put it out of office.

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