John Dolan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Go raibh maith agat. We have heard about the work that went on throughout 2013, culminating in the interdepartmental group that was chaired by the Department of the Taoiseach coming to its conclusion in November of that year and the recommendations to the Department of Health. We move down a few lines in the Minister of State's statement and, next thing, we are in December 2016. He then goes on to state, "The House will appreciate that it has been necessary to estimate both the numbers likely to qualify for payment...". That is interesting, given it is part of the engagement between the Department of Health and the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, and I am sure there would be tensions there. However, the reply from the Minister of State states they could not estimate how many people have lost out on the current scheme, when there are 35 to 40 years of trends available and they know the number is going down each year. I find it puzzling that the Department could not or would not tell us that real people have been losing out year by year on the current scheme. We are being told the Department of Health will provide comfort to the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform about the number of people who are likely to benefit from a scheme we have never seen and that has never been piloted.

This scheme was brought in back in 1979. At the time, we had never heard the language of "personalised budget", "money follows the person" and all of those things, but that is precisely what it was - a simply administered scheme that people had to apply for and which was means tested. Someone got money into their pocket and they could use a variety of different methodologies to make it work for them. It is absolutely crazy and ironic that a Government - this was done by the previous Administration and we have had another one for almost the last two years - would abolish a scheme that was about what we are now told is the new policy. That is exactly what this was doing for over three decades. There was a very simple device at the time, namely, to put a clause or section into some other piece of health legislation and copper-fasten that until the changes were made.