Mary Ann O'Brien (Independent)

——"gone", "finished", "Sorry, made a bit of a mistake." We should tear up the budget, put it in the wastepaper bin and move forward because we should not have touched any of the people mentioned. However, I agree with the Minister's proposal to make the age of payment 18 years rather than 16 because, like Senator Fidelma Healy Eames, I do not believe it is correct to give 16 year olds €188 a week, but I strongly urge the Minister to compensate families for the loss of income that such a change to the age of entitlement will cause. The amount involved, approximately €70, is a lot of money and should be given to the parents.

I am strongly opposed to the blanket cut proposed for the 18 to 24 year age group. The Minister is using too blunt an instrument to save a relatively small amount of money — approximately €7 million. Such a cut makes no provision for differing levels of ability or dependency within the age group. Perhaps the Minister might explain the rationale to us. Let us consider the variations in disability. For example, I could be completely blind — I know I am not supposed to use those words — and need a dog to walk around, as opposed to needing a book with big print, or I could be severely developmentally delayed. It is difficult for me to use the latter term; however, because I had a little boy who was severely handicapped, they are the words I use. He had the same entitlements as someone who was mildly developmentally delayed. We need to stop adopting a blanket approach in looking at the issue and start seeing how we can pick out the more vulnerable. I, therefore, strongly encourage the Minister to examine the vast array of people covered by disability allowance and thus the huge variations in ability and dependency.

We were told that the changes were designed to bring the age category into line with that for jobseeker's allowance, which I love; it is wonderful. Why are young, disabled people in receipt of disability allowance prevented from taking up places on any of the labour activation programmes announced by the Government to date such as JobBridge? If one has a disability, one is not allowed to apply for a place under the JobBridge programme. If one wants to go back to college, one is not allowed to avail of the Springboard programme. Why are we discriminating against people with a disability?

I wish to bring the case of the Ryan family in Tipperary to the attention of the Minister. In brief, the details are as follows. This is a family with a four year boy suffering from quadriplegic cerebral palsy. He is profoundly deaf, unable to speak and was born with a hole in his heart. He is set to lose €9,152 a year because of hidden budget cuts to family income supplement. The Irish Examiner has highlighted the story of this little boy who is still being looked after by the Jack & Jill Foundation because the Health Service Executive which was supposed to take the babies from us after they reached four years of age will not provide a small amount of money to provide the care that he needs — €300 a week — despite numerous letters to it from the family. If the Minister knew the people in question, she would realise that even to get the time and the strength to write a letter is nearly beyond them. They can secure no action, despite letters and having had four meetings with the HSE. The Ombudsman is now involved. I have never heard of the Ombudsman becoming involved before. The boy's father is a porter in an hotel in Limerick. I am sorry to give personal details, but I will not name him. He is epileptic and as such cannot even drive to work. He has to get the bus. I nearly went berserk when I heard that he could not even get a travel card. I provide these details in order to explain to the Minister what we are doing to vulnerable people. Their income is down by nearly €10,000 because of the cuts made in the recent budget. I appeal to her to move back to the word "pause"; let us throw out the budget and give everyone a Christmas present. She should go back to the Dáil and tell us not to bother setting up a committee and wasting time but to put the people concerned back where they belong. If she sees the Minister for Health, Deputy james Reilly, and has any influence on the HSE, she should please hear us out.

I have one last word to say as an employer. This is only a small point because I am shaking because of what I feel for people with a disability. People in business are strong. Things are not great in the private sector; we are having a tough time. I built a new little factory last May and was hoping to take on a few new people next year but the rebate figure that will apply to payments paid to employees is decreasing from 60% to 15%. That provided such an incentive. I accept it sounds difficult, but if I was going to take on people and things did not go well with my new factory and the airlines did not take my desserts and if I had to put the poor souls back into the dole queue, at least I would have a rebate of 60%. Therefore, the proposed change is a mistake and it will not help to create new jobs. It will make employers even more frightened than they already are.