I want to raise a couple of issues here this morning. The first is in relation to Commencement matters. I have submitted a number of Commencement matters in relation to Cluain services, an extraordinary resource in Clonmel, County Tipperary, that provides education, training, activities and respite for people with disabilities and people with mental health issues. It is the only centre in that part of south Tipperary doing this. However, would-be students who are taken on that course have to transfer their disability allowance or social welfare payment over to the Cluain service for the period of their course and this creates a bizarre and unnecessary administrative burden for the Department of Social Protection. For people who are suffering mental health issues or people who have disabilities, this is also onerous. A lot of people who would be able to avail of these services are not doing so because of this bizarre and anomalous administrative requirement, which may have something to do with keeping the numbers on the live register artificially low. I cannot think of a reason for it. When I have submitted the Commencement matters, I get these replies from civil servants, initially from the Department of Health and the HSE stating that it is not their Department and it is not their responsibility and that we should go to the Department of Social Protection. I put the Minister for Social Protection on the Commencement matter and that Department replies stating it is not that Department and it is the HSE and the Department of Health. We are all very busy people here and we have a mandate to represent our constituents. I was a public servant. The clue is in the name, "servant". They are here to assist us and help us. Rather than giving us these cryptic responses to the extent that you will have to figure out yourself who to send it to, could they not join the dots for us as a simple, professional and collegiate courtesy? If they are going to refuse a Commencement matter on the basis that it is not the right Department, would they have the courtesy to say who is responsible? It is wasting time in the system? It is an excellent system. It is not a criticism of the Commencement matter system; it is a criticism of these kind of cryptic responses to say it is not their Department. When they know full well who it is, they should tell us and help us represent our constituents.

There is a second issue I want to bring up. I have just come from a disability matters committee meeting this morning. In that committee meeting, three parents and carers expressed the view to the committee that they hoped their adult children would predecease them, that they would die before they do. What kind of a society are we that parents and carers like me live in fear of what happens to our children when we die? I have written to both the Minister, Deputy Foley, and the Minister of State, Deputy Higgins, about these issues and I have not even received an acknowledgement. I would like to have a debate in this House. I do not know if it is possible to bring in more than one Minister - similar to the Commencement matter issue, there are these issues around demarcation - to have a proper debate on the abject living conditions for disabled citizens in Ireland, especially as we approach the Presidency of the EU. It is Ireland's absolute shame, and it is unnecessary.