At Leader's Questions last Wednesday, the Taoiseach was advised by the Labour Party leader of the circumstances involving a constituent of mine and the Minister for Health and Children. I was surprised that in his reply, the Taoiseach referred to a voluntary organisation being at fault. I subsequently visited the organisation, the Cork Centre for Independent Living, and spoke to its principals. They were disappointed with the Taoiseach's remarks, which may have been made because he was misinformed or did not fully understand the situation. However, that is indicative of a Government that is all too willing to pass on responsibility, especially in relation to this area, the provision of a uniform national system of personal assistance for persons with physical disabilities and mobility difficulties.
In this area different standards in terms of quality of service apply depending on where one lives in the country. In the Eastern Regional Health Authority, a pilot scheme run through the Irish Wheelchair Association is a model to which many wheelchair users aspire. It must be asked why such a service does not exist in the rest of the country and what is the Government prepared to do to ensure that it does.
In the absence of a uniform national service, many of those involved in disability groups find that they are hostage to the willingness of their local health boards to provide one. Often the health boards consider that if they are to be involved in this issue they should provide the service. If the Minister of State has any awareness of the issue, it is based on the willingness of many wheelchair users to live independent lives. If a sufficiently imaginative scheme was provided, the Government would not only provide the resources for a service needed but it would do so in the most cost-effective way possible.
Questions must be asked about the absence of a national scheme. Depending on the health board area, assistance is on a home help basis and very sporadic, entailing one or two hours per day at the board's insistence. It does not always fit in with the needs of the individual wheelchair user and continues to be dependent on community employment schemes in which there is a lack of certainty as to the role in respect of the wheelchair users, despite the good will of the people involved.
We have had four Adjournment Debate Matters this evening to which the Minister for Health and Children could and should have responded. His failure to do so indicates the general problems in the health service. I challenge the Minister of State, Deputy Brian Lenihan, to ask the Minister why such a service is not already in existence and to recognise the anomalies that exist for people with physical disabilities. He should try to avoid a repetition of the circumstances described by the Labour Party leader during Leaders' Questions.
