Imagination needed to replace mobility allowance scheme fairly

I DON’T understand how Government departments can act this way and get away with it.

Tue, 05 Mar, 2013 - 00:00

Fergus Finlay is a former political activist and adviser to three governments, the former head of the children's charity Barnardos, a writer and a broadcaster.

Months ago, the Department of Health was presented with a choice by Ombudsman Emily O’Reilly. You’re doing something illegal, she said, and you’ve got to put it right. According to itself — or at least according to its Junior Minister Kathleen Lynch — the department then agonised for months over the illegal thing it was doing.

But rather than fix the illegality, they decided instead to punish a small group of people with very considerable disabilities, by making life much harder for them and by plunging them into uncertainty. It’s hard to imagine a response more lacking in imagination — or compassion, for that matter.