Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Acting Chairperson. I hope my final few words will not get me in trouble. I thank the Senator for his acknowledgement. I compliment every Minister and official sent to participate on the group I reconfigured. I was not left short one Department. Every Department was represented at the table. To be fair, the Departments of Health, Finance and Transport, as well as the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform and everybody else, were there. That is why it is a good and comprehensive report. As the Senator can see, nobody wanted to own this issue. That is why I took on the role of chairperson and owned it. The report has now been produced.The Senator saw through his thread of emails that still nobody wants to own it. At the end of the day, I am gone into the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth. Equality means rights of access by persons with a disability. If we believe in and breathe the UNCRPD, there is the right to participate. Regardless of where someone lives in rural or urban Ireland, they have the right to go to work or education and to participate as a normal citizen. In some instances, that might mean they need a vehicle to meet their needs. We cannot be restrictive in what is prescribed as to someone's access to that vehicle. I certainly will be having meetings as I have done within my own Department. I need funding behind this so quite rightly I will have to talk to the Minister for Finance. If he gives me the money, I will run it myself and if he does not, I think it should sit within the Department of Finance.