John Dolan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I will be brief. First, I will give the Minister of State a break. I will probably not be at his meeting with the DFI. The Minister of State is saying that progress is being made and that there is cultural change at the level of the Cabinet and the Government. The question is whether progress is happening faster than the demographic change that is working against us. That is the real nub of this issue. Of course, progress is being made when one looks at it micro issue by micro issue. On that €200 million or more which will be the minimum going in, if that amount or something like it is not allocated, we will not make the progress required. That is the issue. Government has crises in health and housing. It is very concerned about what is or is not happening in Northern Ireland and in the context of Brexit. If one looks back five years, the Government had other priorities. Disability is always spoken about as a critical issue but it never breaks into the first division of priorities. That is the problem. It is always on the edge. Can it not break into the first division now? I have named four issues for Government. I will add a fifth. I do not hear Ministers - and I am not talking about the Minister of State - name-dropping disability, mental health or the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Has the latter been ratified? Do the Ministers understand what it means? That is the nub of the cultural change.

The Minister of State mentioned a figure of 170 people, which is all very well. I am not going to rub it in. He and I know that is modest in terms of what needs to be done. Some of that problem will be solved by people dying in the residences and institutions in which they are living. Sadly, that is a fact. Can we please stop adding to it by putting people into nursing homes? There will be people put into nursing homes this year. There are issues like that. The Minister of State has to start draining the thing.

I will leave it at that. I thank the Minister of State. I have a suggestion for the Cathaoirleach. I do not know the way to do this but there needs to be some way for this committee or the Cathaoirleach, with some of the other committees, to bring this discussion beyond justice in some way. It has to be embedded across other committees and other Departments. That is a conundrum don Chathaoirleach féin.