Tom Fleming (Kerry South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Disability Federation of Ireland has major concerns about the urgency of prioritising and addressing the overarching disability goals at this mid-point in the Government's term. These goals represent indicators of the commitments made by the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste to people with disabilities in their pre-election debates where disability was named as one of the key social justice issues to be pursued.

The most important matter is the need to appoint a senior Minister with a dedicated responsibility for disability inclusion. Disability should be afforded the same understanding, respect and urgency that has been accorded to children and young people who now have a specific Minister and Department. The reform of public services is a prerequisite for delivering the national disability strategy. However, there has been little evidence so far of public services working as an entity to support the inclusion of people with disabilities.

Disability is a societal issue that stretches across the life-cycle affecting people of all ages, and their families, both directly and indirectly. The disabled are not a category that anyone else ever joins. There have been huge challenges for the Government at this time in the context of five years of recession with funding being severely reduced, particularly for health services. Increased demand and demographic pressures have had to be accommodated even with reduced funding.

Voluntary disability organisations have come under huge pressure since the recession began, with ever increasing demands on their services. Services that are so badly needed by people with disabilities should not be subject to further onslaught. The balance of funding should be moved to health care services and preventive care services, as well as community-based services and supports provided by voluntary disability organisations.

Limits should be placed on tendering and outsourcing services. It is essential that any cost-cutting measures are disability proofed to ensure that they account for the extra cost of the disability concerned. People with disabilities endure a double hit when cuts are made to specific disabilities as well as mainstream services. It is vital for the Government to pursue the implementation of agreed measures, targets and timelines for disability.

The UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities must be ratified urgently so that people with disabilities can fully enjoy their rights on an equal basis with all other citizens. It is essential that the monitoring mechanism for the national disability strategy implementation plan operates effectively, given the short timeframe remaining for its implementation.

Key pieces of legislation that have been deferred should be prioritised for implementation, including the Disability Act 2005, the Education for Persons with Special Needs Act 2004, and the Comhairle (Amendment) Bill 2004. Irrespective of budgetary constraints, health service funding should be organised on a multi-annual basis to improve and facilitate proper planning. Due respect and recognition for the community and voluntary sector is required from the Government, both for the disability-specific and generic community organisations engaged in the provision of public services.

The disability community has a vital role in terms of its contribution to partnership, working across statutory, non-statutory and private sectors, as well as facilitating cross-departmental working. The Government should address the impact of the reduction in staff numbers in public social services that are supporting people with disabilities to get access to basic mainstream services. A consequence of this depletion in human resources is that the capacity does not exist to implement Government policy as outlined in policy documents such asFuture Health, and will therefore result in a severely damaged social and health infrastructure when austerity finally ends.

The HSE disability consultative forum should be strengthened to become a forum for dialogue and partnership working between the statutory and non-statutory sectors. A systematic approach to collecting data on service use and demand should be prioritised in the statutory and non-statutory health and social care sectors in support of service planning. Improved data are also needed in related areas, including housing and transport. Data need to be gathered on the current labour market position of people with disabilities and their needs in order to assess their distance from the labour market and what supports might be needed to address this.

The quality of life for many people with disabilities has not been enhanced since the Government took office. Their quality of life has been affected by the reduction of HSE funding which impacts on the income of, and services for, people with disabilities. We have seen continuous cuts in HSE funding for disability services in the order of 1.8% in 2011, 3.7% in 2012 and 1.2% in 2013. On an individual basis, organisations have sustained cuts in excess of these amounts from the health services.

Key supports that enable people to live in their communities have been targeted, curtailing people's options to live an ordinary life with independent choice and control. Examples of these include cuts to the housing adaption grant of almost €60 million between 2010 and 2013. The respite care grant was cut by 19% in 2013, the fuel allowance scheme was cut by six weeks in 2012 and there were reductions to the household benefit package in 2013. These cuts have come at a time of rising costs.

There is a considerable level of unmet need for services with 1,670 people in need of a personal assistant service in 2011 while 3,938 households with a person with a disability had unmet housing needs. In addition, mainstream health-related cutbacks are damaging people's ability to achieve good health and well-being. These include increased prescription charges which are five times greater than in 2012, the increase in the threshold of the drugs payment scheme and the rolling back of free GP care for people with certain illnesses who comprise a cohort with a heavy reliance on health services. Other cutbacks are affecting people's ability to progress in the labour market, such as the reduction in funding for educational supports, including the 20% cut in funding in 2012 for access programmes for students with disabilities.

In summary, the cumulative effects of the rising cost of living, the reduced supports for community living, the reduced social welfare benefits and the new taxes and changes to the existing taxes have seen the erosion of the incomes of people with disabilities. In such a scenario the Government cannot claim that the quality of life for people with disabilities has been enhanced during its term.

People with disabilities continue to be at risk of consistent poverty. A recent survey on income and living conditions demonstrated that in 2011, people not at work due to illness or disability had a rate of consistent poverty of more than 11%, an increase of 2.3% since 2009. Meanwhile, their average annual household disposable income was reduced from €31,731 in 2009 to €22,089 in 2011. A recent ESRI study found that almost one in five people living in jobless households were adults with a disability. The report also found that welfare payments were crucial in lifting jobless households above the poverty threshold but there has been no improvement in their living standards or level of financial stress over the period.

The cost of living for people with disabilities is not similar to those of people without disabilities. It has been long recognised that people with disabilities and their families incur extra costs for food, heating, clothing and transport. They also incur extra costs for health care, assistance, aids and devices. It has been estimated that the long-term costs of disability can be approximately one third of an average weekly income. For this reason their income is considerably reduced compared to non-disabled persons in receipt of jobseeker's payment. Disability allowance remains a contingency payment on a par with jobseeker's allowance and paid at the same rate of €188 a week. If those on jobseeker's payments are expected to move back into the labour force, various activation programmes exist for that purpose. Meanwhile, many people with disabilities are likely to continue to live on the lowest of income protection supports, often for their entire adult life. In addition, people with disabilities are subject to the same mainstream cuts as others, for example, the targeting of the household benefits package in the 2013 and 2014 budgets.

The extra demands made on their income is a double hit, one for which they are not adequately compensated. It is arguably the case that the secondary benefits on income disregards associated with disability payments, such as disability allowance, go some way towards offsetting the extra costs of disabilities but they do not form the kind of package needed to adequately ensure against the risk of poverty and social exclusion. People with disabilities are one of those groups most likely to be living in a jobless household and to be at risk of consistent poverty. They have extra costs related to their disability and for this reason their income is comparatively less compared to other groups in receipt of income supports. They also experience the double hit when cuts are implemented in mainstream services as well as specific services. I hope these matters will be addressed before the end of the term of office of this Government.

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