Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 27 September 2012
7. Deputy Brian Stanley asked the Minister for Health if he will confirm that the proposed cuts to funding for personal assistants for the disabled have been reversed; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41007/12]
Amharc ar fhreagraI assure the Deputy that in the context of the current financial challenges facing the Health Service Executive, I have instructed the executive to continue to provide services to people in receipt of personal assistant services in accordance with their needs. While savings have to be achieved out of the total disability budget of €1.4 billion per annum, the HSE has been requested to distribute adjustments across the sector, with a focus on cutting administration, training and travel costs and better cash management. I have also asked the HSE to work with the non-statutory agencies to minimise the impact on services within the disability sector and report regularly to me on these measures. The application of these measures will be reviewed regularly to ensure they are being applied as fairly and sympathetically as possible. I am co-operating very closely in this regard with my colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Kathleen Lynch.
It is not over the top to ask the Minister the reason such cruel cuts to disability services were contemplated in the first instance. Why did the Minister sign off on the cuts which were announced on 30 August? He is hardly suggesting he was not aware of the announcement given that he, as he indicated, is a hands-on Minister who took responsibility and accountability back to his office from the former chief executive officer of the Health Service Executive.
A U-turn had to be done on this issue, for which credit must go to the people with disabilities and their personal assistants who held an overnight protest outside Government Buildings. They deserve commendation for their actions. What of home help hours and home care packages? Was it a case of who got to the gates of Government Buildings first? It must be accepted, following the row-back on the measures relating to personal assistants amounting to some €10 million in cuts, that the same approach must be adopted in respect of home help hours and home care packages, which account for €12.5 million of €130 million in cuts that were announced. Will the Minister take this opportunity to announce the reversal of these cuts, which will have serious consequences for many people who are dependent on services and are already creating enormous stress in the lives of people who do not know what lies ahead for them? The people in question do not deserve this.
I understand the value of the personal assistant service to someone who has a disability, the difference between the service being available and not being available and the counter-productive result the absence of such a service has for an individual in terms of his or her ability to maintain his or her independence and reach his or her full potential in terms of daily activities and the ability to live independently at home. The measures in question were announced on a Thursday and I appeared on radio and television the following day to assure people they would not lose their service. I issue the same assurance again.
Equally, I am convinced that home help services and, in particular, home care packages enable people to stay at home and are preferable from the point of view of the recipient and much more cost-effective from the point of view of the State. I have, however, made a point that a budget of €1.5 billion is devoted to older people, a figure that is exclusive of the money spent on the care of older people in the hospital and primary care systems. At a time of financial constraints, we must seek efficiencies. Given that we have been able to achieve such efficiencies in other services, surely it is possible to do so in a budget of €1.5 billion for the care of older people and €1.3 billion for disability.
In the past, Governments were focused on inputs, namely, how much money was being spent and how many staff were employed, whereas this Government is more focused on outcomes for patients and clients. People with disabilities are not patients because they are not ill.
We are going to do all in our power to protect clients from any reductions in budgets. I do not accept that a reduction in budget should always result in a reduction in service.
How could the Government find €10 million to reverse the reduction in personal assistant hours when it could not identify it the week before? It just beggars belief.
I want to quote a statement made on the floor of the House last week:
Do we cut home help services or impose a cap on consultants' pay? Our priority must be to protect front-line services. We cannot cut our way out of problems.
Does the Minister agree with those words? The Member who said them was the Minister's then ministerial colleague with responsibility for primary care, Deputy Shortall. I agree with her absolutely. I have no doubt that what she said last week and what the Minister has failed to do since is a significant part of the reason she is no longer his colleague at the Department of Health.
It must be recognised that cuts cannot be contemplated in areas in which the need is already much greater than current resourcing provides for. To target these areas now is absolutely scandalous. Will the Minister seize the opportunity this evening, against all that has happened since, to give some relief to those who are in great distress at the prospect of cuts to their current allocation of home help hours and home care packages?
I have already made it clear people will not lose their services. Those who need them will have them. The consultants' pay issue has been addressed, as we discussed earlier. I also believe the talks with the Irish Pharmaceutical Healthcare Association, IPHA, which represents the pharmaceutical industry, are approaching a conclusion and I expect the results to be beneficial to the health service and to patients. It is important to remember, when we discuss this matter, that this is an industry that employs 25,000 people directly and another 100,000 indirectly, as well as being responsible for exports worth many billions of euro. One company alone contributes €880 million to the Exchequer.
I am glad Mr. Martin Naughton, Mr. Joe Mooney and Ms Leigh Gath have agreed to advise Mr. Tony O'Brien of the HSE on the future of this service from the clients' perspective. That is an element that has been lacking in the past, and we need more involvement. The issue of Mr. Walsh and his wheelchair was discussed earlier with Deputy Joan Collins. The idea from the old days that the doctor knows best is gone, and the idea that the service provider knows best must also go. We must take into account the needs of the individuals we are supposed to be serving. That will not be achievable if we do not listen to them.
