Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Tully for allowing me to go first. With some of the family here marking my card today, I had better ensure that I do things right. I welcome them all here.

I thank Ms Griffin and Mr. Miller for attending and for their very interesting presentation on what the LAC programme has achieved through a small pilot scheme. They said the scheme is not operational now, unfortunately, and that now is the time for it to be rolled out across the country. Who funded the pilot scheme? How long did it run for? If we were to run it across the country, how much would it cost and what Department should be heading it up?

For over four years, members of this committee have been discussing disability issues. The guests have shown us a model that benefits families, parents, communities and, most of all, people with disabilities. I have often said that I am sometimes not very proud of what politicians do to help people with disabilities. The programme seems to be a key enabler for people with disabilities and their families to become more engaged and involved. The guests said people became members of the PPNs and so on. A natural progression would be to see people going for election to county councils, the Dáil and Seanad. It is about have more representatives. There was a retrograde step in Galway County Council this year in that Gabe Cronnolly, an amputee who had been a councillor for two terms, did not run for election again, for the basic reason that he was not allowed the supports he needed to assist with his disability. He decided he was giving up after ten years, which was sad.

Could the guests tell me about the costs and the funding source? Is it possible to roll out the scheme across the country?