Colm Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the delegates for their comprehensive presentations which I very much appreciate. I return to the budget of €1.68 billion for disability services. Is that money coming from the health budget or from a number of Departments? There is a health budget of approximately €14 billion. I am not sure whether the sum of €1.68 billion is part of that budget or the social welfare budget. Will the delegates identify what is coming from the social welfare budget for the disability sector for supports? Will they identify all of the supports provided by the Department of Social Protection?

It has been mentioned that people here are at a loss compared to people living in the United Kingdom. Will the delegates outline the rights people here do not have? It is important to highlight and focus on the differences and how people here are at a disadvantage as a result of the convention not being implemented.

The delegates spoke about the number of people in nursing homes. I agree with them, but the building of nursing homes is a matter for the private sector. The decision to place someone in a nursing home is not taken by the person running it. An application must be made through the health service. It is not the private sector which makes the final decision. When an application is made to have someone admitted to a nursing home, especially a young person with a disability, is there a mechanism in place within each HSE area to see if there is an alternative to admission such as a more comprehensive home care package? From my dealings in this area, I am not convinced that there is. Have the delegates sat down with HSE representatives in the various regions to see if this issue can be dealt with to ensure better outcomes for applicants? I have seen huge differences in people who have been able to remain at home because of a substantial increase in home care support. In one case it has added at least ten years to the person's life. I accept, however, that there might not be people available with the necessary skills to provide that support in some parts of the country. It is a major challenge, especially in rural areas, but it is an issue that needs to be dealt with.

The other issue about which I am greatly concerned and which I have had to deal with locally in Cork is related to people living in local authority housing. In March 2014 I came across a person with a major physical and intellectual disability being cared for by their parents who had a letter they had received from Cork City Council in July 2008 confirming that they were on the list of applicants to have adaption works carried out in their house. Six years on no works had been carried out. I communicated with the city council for more than six months to see if they could be progressed but without success. I then went to the Ombudsman and the works were carried out, but it took me 16 or 17 months. The person concerned was receiving full-time care which would probably have cost the State €3,500 a week, but there was no such cost because the person concerned was being looked after by their parents at home. There was a lack of co-ordination between the local authorities and the health and social welfare services. Have the delegates ever considered the possibility of putting a mechanism in place to get State agencies to work together? In fairness to the Cope Foundation in Cork, it did a huge amount of work for the family in question to try to get the city council to progress the works involved. I am glad to report that I managed to obtain €2.5 million for the city council this year to have 42 houses adapted. We will clear the list. It normally takes six to eight years from the date of application to have the works done. The family mentioned are the reason the €2.5 million is in place, not me. They highlighted the issue and now many other families will benefit as a result of their bringing it to my attention.

On the provision of disability officers in local authorities, there seems to be a huge lack of understanding, about which I have gone to the National Disability Authority. I submitted a freedom of information request to a number of local authorities, one of which replied that it was glad to report that the disability officer had dealt with two issues for the year, at a total cost of something like €12,000. My understanding of the role of the disability officer in a local authority is that it is his or her job to highlight cases such as that of a local authority tenant who needs assistance in having adaption works carried out to meet his or her needs. It seems, however, that disability officers have the attitude that their only responsibility is to ensure access to public buildings. Have the delegates communicated with local authorities on this matter recently? I raised it with the National Disability Authority over two years ago and I am still not convinced that anything has changed. There are approximately 40 local authorities. Surely people working at that level could identify some of the issues involved. It is not just about the streetscape or access to public buildings; it is also about access to services and, in particular, ensuring houses are adapted and planning for the number that will need to be built for people with disabilities. While we are all talking about the building of new houses, we are not talking about the number that will need to be built to cater for people with disabilities.

The delegates might deal with these issues. I thank them for the work they are doing, but there are challenges that we need to deal with. There are budgets available to do much of what needs to be done.

It is just a case of people applying their minds to having the works done.