APPEALS on disability payments and grants should be held locally and not in Dublin, according to Limerick Independent Ireland TD Richard O’Donoghue.
The government, the Country Limerick politician believes, needs to learn from people with disabilities and the people who work with them that they want to contribute the same way as everybody else.
“The government makes everything so difficult. It makes everything circle about the Departments in Dublin. That needs to change,” Deputy O’Donoghue said.
“We must ensure there are services in place to allow people from the department to come down to other areas of the country to meet people with disabilities.”
Deputy O’Donoghue says the first thing the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration, and Youth should consider is travelling to investigate such cases if there is to be an appeal.
“We should not be bringing people all the way to Dublin when they are trying to fight a case for their loved ones,” he said.
“I was approached by a 78-year-old man who has a son with a disability. His son is living at home. They applied for a grant for an adaptation to their car but were refused. They came back with an appeal. The department wanted the father to drive to Dublin for the appeal.
“We asked could the appeal be reconvened to Limerick and the department said it would do what it could in that regard. This man is 78 years of age and his son has a disability. His son can sometimes get a weakness and his father must try to get him into the car to get him medical help.
”The appeals system is very slow and we should not be bringing people to Dublin for an appeal in respect of a disability payment,” he concluded.
