Finian McGrath (Dublin Bay North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

When I spoke to representatives of the Irish Wheelchair Association, I did not wash my hands of any issue. I put a lot of the points raised in the House today to them. I met Senator Hopkins, who did great work on this issue behind the scenes, as well as other public representatives from Roscommon. I proposed a pause and raised the issue of the treatment of staff. I am very concerned about staff only getting four weeks notice. I have major issues with that. I assure Senators that we had a robust meeting. There was consultation with public representatives. Everyone seems to have missed the fact that I said in the past week that my door is wide open to the Irish Wheelchair Association, the HSE and all relevant stakeholders, if they want to ask for something which differs from what they asked for last week. Senator Gallagher mentioned stakeholders, to whom I will always listen. I have just come from a series of meetings with families of people with disabilities.

Senator Mullen has raised an important development and I have no problem in accepting his bona fides in that regard. In the interval between the meeting that I had and the meeting of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Health, the position of the board of the Irish Wheelchair Association changed. I did not change my position and in that context, Senator Mullen should ask questions of the board. I am not going to get directly involved in the internal workings-----