I welcome the fact that we are going to have a referendum. It is a good day for democracy and the people of this country. I hope we have a fair and balanced debate in the coming weeks.

I wish to raise the important issue of cuts to people with disabilities. In recent days there has been a worsening of these cuts. Many of them are happening behind closed doors with no real knowledge of the details and, more importantly, the hardship that is suffered by people with disabilities and their families. Is the Taoiseach aware of the cuts to front line services for people with disabilities and is he supporting them behind closed doors?

There has been a cut of 3.7% to personal assistance funding for people with a physical disability which means isolation for those people. It is a major step backwards which will result in less choice and a loss of control. It has all the hallmarks of putting people back into institutions.

No residential funding is available for St. Michael's House services at a time when 330 people, 47 of whom are in extreme difficulty, are on waiting lists for residential services. Does the Taoiseach find that acceptable? St. Michael's House has already experienced cuts of €950,000 in the past seven months. By the end of the Croke Park agreement savings of more than €3 million will have been achieved by St. Michael's House. It has done its bit in terms of savings but the Government wants to impose more cuts. Will the Taoiseach explain to the House why the Government is cutting the domiciliary care allowance and the carer's allowance under the new buzzword, "review"? Does the Taoiseach accept that the Government is now putting extreme pressure and hardship on families of children with disabilities and will he reverse those silent cuts?

Deputy Finian McGrath is aware that there have been no cuts in headline rates of social welfare payments. The Minister of State, Deputy Kathleen Lynch, undertook to draft the strategy on disability last November. Her report is practically complete. For the benefit of Deputy Adams, a great deal of ink has been put on reports previously and a lot of toner has been used.

What about the Repsol Press?

Who is behind the cartridges?

In any event, the Minister is in the concluding stages of presenting the strategy on disability which will point out the pathways to the future in so far as the principle of looking after persons with disabilities is concerned. I met a number of them myself in the past two weeks. The Minister for Social Protection introduced the partial capacity benefit in recent weeks to allow persons on disability to gain employment and to be part of the general workforce, which is in the interests of everyone with a disability. I do not have the details of the individual cases raised by the Deputy but I suggest that, when the Minister of State, Deputy Kathleen Lynch, comes forward with the strategy on disability, we will have an opportunity to have a full and thorough debate on it in the House.

The Taoiseach said there would be no cuts. If that is the case, why are three young mothers from Carlow taking legal proceedings against the Department of Social Protection on foot of its decision to stop the domiciliary care allowance, DCA? Is the Taoiseach aware that Helen Fahy, Lorraine Ryan and Aimee Doogue, who are mothers of autistic children, had their DCA stopped in the past two months? They have lost their carer's allowance of €58 per week. What does he say to those families in the context of there being no cuts? One of those children has severe social impairment, challenging behaviour, speech delay, is a flight risk without constant supervision, is not toilet trained and has a significant destructive sleep pattern. The Government is now cutting the child's carer's allowance by €58 per week following a review. Will the Government challenge those three families in the courts? How many millions of euro of taxpayers' money will be wasted on fighting those families in the courts and attacking those people who just want a simple, decent service?

Deputy Finian McGrath will be aware that the domiciliary care allowance has been in place for some years. He is also aware that it transferred from the Department of Health to the Department of Social Protection some time ago and that when that took place, review dates were set for the allowances being paid out at the time. The domiciliary care allowance is subject to a set of conditions and they are monitored by medical assessment, not as a consequence of political policy. The recipients of the domiciliary care allowance are entitled to avail of the appeals process but the decision was based on medical assessment as distinct from any other criterion. That was signalled clearly when the domiciliary care allowance was transferred from the Department of Health to the Department of Social Protection and the review dates were set. Any reductions are due to decisions made on the basis of medical assessment, not as a consequence of political policy.