Finian McGrath (Dublin Bay North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I would appreciate if I could finish the points rather than be interrupted. I have been waiting here for a while and I wanted to get back in on a few things.

Listening to some people, one would think not much was going on in the disability sector. It is important to remind people of the huge amount of work going on in the disability services and the disability sector. Recently, 9,800 people in receipt of domiciliary care allowance for sick and disabled children have been given medical cards, which has a very significant impact on families with disabled children. We have also had the restoration of the carer's grant, which 101,000 families are receiving. Some €1.688 billion is being invested in disability services, an increase of 6%.

Senator Dolan spoke about figures, estimates and plans. I know from my day to day job that, for example, we are dealing with 1,500 school leavers every year. There has been a major improvement since last year. The families of all those 18-year olds leaving over the next week or so have been told what service they will be attending. That was a problem when I first came into office and one we also have to deal with.

We will be offering 8,400 residential places, 182,000 respite nights and 1.4 million personal assistant hours for 2,400 people with disabilities. We will deal with 24,800 day places and 2.75 home support hours for 7,500 people. Those are the kind of numbers we are dealing with. Regarding emergency cases, we will have €16.2 million supporting 395 people this year. In that sector we will provide support for 210 emergency respite places. These are the kind of figures we are talking about.

I agree with the Senator's point on unemployment and poverty. The high level of unemployment among the disabled is totally unacceptable and I again raised this issue at Cabinet last Tuesday. We have a target of increasing the employment of people with disabilities in the public service from 3% to 6%.

Some Departments have a good record in this, where up to 3.6% of employees are disabled. I welcome that, but a hell of a lot more must be done. We also have the national disability inclusion strategy which it is hoped will make a huge difference to people's lives. I am bringing forward these practical, hands-on, measurable actions. Make Work Pay is a group which is working to make it worthwhile for a person with a disability to take up employment. I have already mentioned the comprehensive employment strategy. There are many actions ongoing. On the points raised on section 38 and 39 hospitals, and I might ask my colleagues from the HSE to develop this as well, I agree that the staff migration to better paying organisations is an issue-----