Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)

That might be so, and I empathise with the Senator's point. However, I can find groups representing other disabilities who will come back and show there is an even greater cost of disability in their area. My view is that this has to be tackled - for the blind and for the disabled generally. However, there is no way to tackle it if we are not willing to bite the bullet and grade.

We have all known people in receipt of disability allowance who would walk into one's office. They would have a disability but not one that entails huge costs, and they would be mobile, drive their own car and so on. At the same time, we know people who are utterly dependent. My view is that if we persist in saying that all of those situations are exactly the same, it gets more difficult to try to do something extra for those with the more severe disabilities. When we discuss the partial capacity legislation, people will see the principle about which I am talking. In most of these schemes what is measured is one's ability to work. If one's capacity to work is at a level of 20% or less, one can keep one's full payment and work with no limit on the hours worked or the income earned, subject to periodic medical examinations to show one's condition has not improved. If one's capacity to work is at a level of 50% to 80%, one is allowed to keep half of the payment and work as much as one wants. The idea is that one recognises different grades. It is said that is very difficult but every day we make a fine call. People talk about carer's allowance. We must make a call as to whether constant care and attention is required. We have all seen the person at the margin who has been refused disability allowance and must fall back on jobseeker's allowance. We then see the person who is so disabled that it is an open and shut case and about which there is no argument.

We need to debate how we should move forward. If we really want to look after those with the most severe level of disabilities, we must have the ability to treat groups differently, as we do in the case of jobseeker's and disability allowances. In some cases, it is a fine call, while in others, it is a very easy one. I spent days trying to determine if there was a way out. If the numbers were small, I could have done it because I would not have had to impinge significantly on the rate paid to jobseekers. However, they were too large.

A point was made about supports. One of the things I have always encouraged those involved in the rural social scheme and the community employment scheme to do - I will now encourage those involved in the new Tús scheme, which means beginning-----