Ulick Burke (Fine Gael)

I will speak through the Chair, as I have done all day. I would have continued to do so were it not for the arrogance of the Minister of State, Deputy Fahey.

Perhaps the Minister of State will agree to tell us how many people will be employed? I may be incorrect in suggesting it will be hundreds. I am open to correction on the number of liaison officers, complaints officers and appeals officers and the corresponding support staff that will be required.

The Bill contains the type of provisions that are either unnecessary or irrelevant to the needs of people with disability. If disabled people cannot access services and a large bureaucracy were in operation they would have good reason to be aggrieved. When the Bill is stripped down, its principal purpose is to refuse disabled people rights or to severely limit the circumstances in which meaningful rights are granted, rather than actually giving rights to people with disabilities.

The Bill aims to confer one right on people with disabilities — the right in certain circumstances to an assessment of their health or educational needs. Arising from such an assessment a person may get a statement of the services to which they might be entitled if they are eligible for these services and provided it is practicable and affordable by the Exchequer. There are many qualifying clauses on the rights that are specified which provide an opt-out for the Minister and Government of the day. It is time for the Minister of State to agree to amend those provisions to verify that an assessment will be given, and that the needs identified will be resourced whether they are in the area of health or education.

Constituents of mine in County Galway have a three year old child who is profoundly handicapped. The mother gave up her job for three years to care for her child. The father gives as much time as is available to him in support of his child. They applied in the usual way to the local HSE office for funding for a place for their child in the education system. The family lives on the border of counties Galway and Roscommon. The most convenient location for a service to be provided to them is Roscommon town. The service providers in County Galway stated that its allocation, which had only recently been received, would be taken up by the provision of services to children over 12 years of age and that nobody within the county aged under 12 would get a placement in the coming year without additional funding being made available to the HSE. If the Minister of State can live with that, so be it. In this instance, there is no place for a child of three and a half years of age to go to obtain any assistance because the resources are not available. There is a turf war over who will have responsibility for the provision of the necessary resources in counties Galway and Roscommon.

I have no reason to believe this legislation will provide the necessary funding because it is qualified according to the availability of resources. If such circumstances are to continue, the eight young people under 12 years who are on the waiting list in County Galway will have to live without any support services. Their parents will have to continue as they are and stay out of work to maintain their children in their homes. If the Minister of State is to preside over legislation that will allow this to continue, be it in respect of health or education, he should note that all the platitudes in the Bill will come to naught. He is not prepared to change the legislation regardless of the pleas of so many bodies that have suffered at the coalface over the years in terms of consultation and the provision of resources.