Mr. Gary Lee:

I will first answer the question on what is not working in the community and try to put it in the context of health. We did four reports recently on transport, employment, housing and personal assistance services, respectively. I can provide the joint committee with copies. I would like our members to speak for themselves. For this reason, I will cite from the reports some comments made by members on how they are experiencing life on the ground. The first is from our housing report:

I find policies and protocols will be developed to account for people with disabilities as vulnerable people. Doctors, occupational therapists and case workers must assess your needs. Service providers must run risk assessments etc. While this may be necessary in some cases, it is not necessary in all cases. No respect is given to the wishes or knowledge of the person with a disability.

The second is taken from the transport report:

To travel to my doctor and back in Donegal costs €70 return. There is no accessible public transport so I have no choice but to go by car. I have to save the money that I should be spending on essentials like food to pay for the journey.

The third statement is taken from the report on personal assistance services:

The provider I am familiar with is funding and staff led. While it can't control the lack of funding, it can enhance the process of empowering people with a disability to know what their world would look like with all their needs met. People with a disability don't have a clear process into assessment or what they can ask for. Fear and secrecy is at the heart of too many people's lives and [this is] reflected in how they engage. The service provider generally does not address this adequately.

The same report features the following comment from another service user:

[It is] definitely not fair or user friendly. I regard the system as one in which the client is 'done to' – the assessment process is highly subjective. Recently, I have obtained copies of PSDS policies from different parts of the country. Not only is the assessment subjective, based on assessment tools from 1965, in terms of policy it is biased on a geographical basis and depends on the skill and judgement of those handling the budget at local level.

These are only a sample of comments made by our members about how they, as persons with disabilities, experience life in Ireland in 2017.

Clearly, there are not enough supports in the community for people with disabilities. The national disability strategy, the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and best practice are all about enabling people to live in the community. Achieving this requires the provision of proper supports. Money is being invested in building nursing homes all around us and the beds in these homes will have to be filled. In our experience, the people who own these homes are not too fussed about the demographics of the people who are filling these spaces. This is a matter of serious concern to our members. While on the one hand investment is being made in building nursing homes, on the other hand there has been no further investment in personal assistance services since 2009. How does that tee up with what the Government says it is doing and is supposed to do? Investing money in institutions while failing to make proper investment in supports to enable people to live at home is contrary not only to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities but also to the national disability strategy policy.

The supports required by people with disabilities have been documented. The best source of information is to ask people with disabilities who use services what they need. The Center for Independent Living is based on the philosophy of active citizenship. As well as pointing out the difficulties and issues that arise, we also set out how these problems can be solved. The solutions come from those on the ground. We are asking that we be listened to because these solutions will ultimately save money. If we were discussing the private sector, the market would dictate how a service would operate and how much money would be invested in a particular service because a service would not be used if it was not good enough. The position in this case is the reverse in that services are simply provided for people with disabilities.

The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is about people with disabilities being listened to and becoming involved in the monitoring process of the convention. To respond to Senator Dolan's question, there is no legal impediment to Ireland ratifying the UN convention. The failure to ratify is for policy reasons only. There is nothing in the convention which provides that X, Y and Z must be done before the convention can be ratified. The Government will speak of Ireland being a dualist system and the need to have all our ducks in a row before we can ratify. My response is to ask whether life has been getting better for people with disabilities since the convention came into play ten years ago and the answer to that question is a resounding "no". The Government is not, therefore, busy getting things right before the convention can be ratified.

An issue arises regarding the term "reasonable accommodation" on which a ruling was made following the referral of the Equal Status Bill to the Supreme Court in 1996. The Supreme Court decision refers to "reasonable accommodation" in terms of the property rights of private citizens and states that it may encroach on constitutional rights in the area of property. Now, 21 years later, our view is that this judgment was particular to a specific Bill at a given time and should not be used as a weapon for refusing to ratify the convention. We understand the Attorney General has provided legal advice on the decision. We have not seen the advice and have asked that a copy be published. We understand the Taoiseach can waive the privilege that applies in respect of such advice and make it available in this case. As far as we are concerned, there is no legal impediment to ratification. Other dualist nations have ratified it.

On the national disability strategy and implementation group, I will give the example of employment to which Senator Dolan referred. A so-called comprehensive employment strategy was launched in September 2016.

I would like to know how many jobs for people with disabilities have emerged from that. Of particular concern was that there was no sign of the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, not only at the launch in 2016 but in terms of engaging with the comprehensive employment strategy, it has been left to the Department of Justice and Equality and the Department of Social Protection. Why are jobs for people with disabilities not an issue for the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation? For anyone who does not have a disability, it is the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation. If a person has a disability, it is a health or medical matter. People with disabilities are the same as everyone else. We are all citizens of Ireland. Why exclude people with disabilities from the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation? That is one example of where there is not joined-up thinking or support.

We are experiencing a lot of frustration in terms of the national disability strategy. We are now being told we have a Minister of State with responsibility for disability who sits at the Cabinet, although he is not a member of Cabinet, and that issues relating to disability should be passed on to and dealt with by him. Disability should be a matter for every single Department. There should be someone specific in those particular Departments who is responsible for disability, and the Department that should have over-arching responsibility to make sure the national disability strategy is rolled out by Departments is the Department of the Taoiseach. In my experience of the past four or five years on the national disability strategy implementation group, it was only when the Taoiseach's Department became involved for a period of about five or six months that we saw movement by other Departments on the national disability strategy.

On supports and why they are being given to nursing homes and maybe the older age sector when they should be given to disability, I would say it relates to fair deal. That is set up as a statutory scheme. Civil servants naturally follow the statutory scheme and the money will go to the area where legislation provides for it. There is no statutory basis for personal assistance services. Indeed, there are more than 30 non-statutory schemes run by the Department of Health, some of which have nothing to do with health, and we would question why things such as mobility and transport grants and even personal assistance services are the responsibility of the Department of Health. Why are they in the Department of Health and not, for instance, in the Department of Social Protection or the Department of Justice and Equality? These are some of the issues I wanted to raise today.