John Kelly (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the House, particularly when we are supporting this worthy motion. I have the greatest admiration for people with disabilities, people in wheelchairs and people who are living independently. We should do everything in our power to protect them. I spent about seven years back in the 1980s raising money for the Irish Wheelchair Association doing walks in the Holly Land. I personally raised more than £50,000 at the time and was delighted to have done so. Given all that, I have a personal affinity with all these people who unfortunately are confined to a wheelchair.

I know Tom Chambers in Mayo and he does a great deal of good work related to disability access to public buildings. Unfortunately, there are still many public buildings that have decided not to do anything to cater for people with disabilities. There are many banks to which access can only be gained by climbing up steps - I know of a few of them. I know Tom Cunningham in Gurteen in County Sligo. Tom is wheelchair bound and he goes to my town to play cards every Tuesday night. He is living independently and does everything a normal person does. I also know the one and only Mary Ganley who works in Roscommon with the disability service and she does an amazing job and deserves a great deal of credit. I have known Mary since I was growing up when we used to go dancing in the Casino in Castlerea and Mary was out on the middle of the floor in her wheelchair jiving. I would say if the Casino was still going Mary would be still going.

It is essential that all of these people's personal assistants, PAs, are protected and that we ensure there is more investment in this area and that there will be no further cutbacks. I know that Mary Ganley goes to work every day. She does an amazing job. Like her and everybody else I know who are living independently, they are intelligent people. They are very clever and witty. They have immense ability. They do not view themselves as having a major disability. They consider themselves to be the same as ourselves, they only difference is that they are in wheelchairs and, fortunately for us, we are not.

I listened to the Senator van Turnhout's contribution and she covered everything, including all the obstacles that, heretofore, had confronted people with disabilities. I hope we are moving towards dealing with all of those issues in the immediate future and I am optimistic that we will. The notion that we should not look after people in their own homes and should consider putting them into residential institutions is a nonsense, apart from the fact that it definitely will cost much more to do that.

I have concerns that have come to light in recent times regarding all the people who have disabilities, including people in wheelchairs, who we hear have had their medical cards removed by the nonsense that is going on in the PCRS. I have an Adjournment matter on that issue tabled to the Minister after this debate and I will go into it in more detail. Those kinds of situations do not help anybody and it certainly does not help people with disabilities to have the stress of dealing with medical cards, knowing that their card is being removed when they know they should be entitled to it.

All people should be equal and, unfortunately, for too many years some people have been more equal than others in this society. Let us look after the people with disabilities and the people who want to live independently in this society.