Colm Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I have tabled a Commencement Matter in the Seanad this morning and I must leave soon. I thank Dr. Muldoon very much for his very detailed presentation and for outlining the work he is doing. He raised homelessness and children and the considerable pressures on local authorities at the moment. It is an issue that must be tackled urgently.

I was involved in referring two cases to Dr. Muldoon’s office. I know they are under investigation. I will assist in whatever way I can on the matters I referred to him, which relate to local authorities, children with disabilities and the role of access officers within local authorities. There seems to be a huge misunderstanding within local authorities about the role of access officers. The Disability Act clearly sets out the role of the access officer. I have already spoken to the Disability Authority on the matter and suggested that it would be helpful for it to correspond with local authorities. Access officers are there to help people with disabilities but it appears there is an interpretation in some local authorities that their only role is to talk about access to public buildings, which is a very strange interpretation.

I wish to refer briefly to the issues I raised. They relate to cases of children with major disabilities, both physical and intellectual, who are living in local authority houses but the local authority prevents any alteration being done to a house even where it has been offered on a voluntary basis. In one case an architect and team of builders agreed to carry out alterations to a house on a voluntary basis as a contribution from the local community but the local authority said it could not be done. The houses in question require to be adapted to accommodate the children with serious disabilities. There is a considerable variation between the waiting time in local authorities to get adaptation work done. I understand the waiting time in the Louth County Council area is less than three months, whereas in my area it is six and a half years to seven years.

It is outrageous that this is happening.

When I recently met representatives from my local authority to discuss this matter, I inquired about the case of a person who had been on the waiting list for six and a half years. The individual concerned was sent a letter in July 2008 in which it was stated the necessary work would be carried out. Six and a half years later the work has still not been done. The person concerned has serious physical and intellectual disabilities. There is a second case with which I am dealing in which the scenario is similar. When I raised it with the representatives from the local authority, they stated the person involved had only been on the waiting list for two and a half years. There appears to be a culture that unless people are on the waiting list for five years, there is no point in them knocking on the door. Local authorities must be made aware of the fact that they have an obligation to make provision for work to be carried out where it is required because the children to whom it relates are being deprived of basic services. Even where people are offering to do the work on a voluntary basis, they are being prevented from doing so. This matter must be given priority. I fully accept what was said about homelessness and children and the fact that a huge number of families require housing. However, we must also cater for those who have houses but which are unsuitable, which is the cause children do not have their needs met. They are not being accommodated in the proper manner. Account must be taken of this fact. I have requested a meeting about this matter with Dr. Muldoon. I look forward to that meeting, but in the interim it would be easy for his office to highlight for local authorities that this issue should be given priority during the remainder of 2015.

I again thank Dr. Muldoon for his presentation.