Violet-Anne Wynne (Clare, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to address the committee. I wish to express my delight at being appointed as a member of the committee. As all present will be aware, people with disabilities have for far too long been treated as an afterthought or even as second-class citizens, as they have identified. There has been reference to various challenges, some of which I wish to touch on.

I hope the committee will be able to address the issue of how people with disabilities feel they are being treated. It is not just a feeling; it is a fact. Access to transport has been mentioned, as have the issues of education, employment and so on. It is about the individuals who realise that no provision has been made for them in terms of housing and the other important supports we need in our lives to have a balanced lifestyle and feel part of society. I know how one can end up in a space where there is no support or where one is in a difficult situation. That is often the case for people with disabilities and their family members. I hope this will not become a talking shop but, rather, will provide for action to be taken.

I welcome the comments of the Minister of State regarding the thematic meetings which she will chair. She stated that every second meeting will be done thematically, which will provide an opportunity for Departments to come in, specifically focus on issues - that is what the Minister of State is getting at - and take that as a whole. That will be very important for the likes of County Clare, for example. There is an Irish Rural Link service there which is a bit different from most other such services. It was set up as Clare Bus. I am sure those present are aware of that organisation, which has been in the news many times in recent weeks. It lost many of its routes due to an ongoing situation with the NTA. The situation has not been resolved. I hope that if I send more information on the matter to the Minister of State, she will be able to raise it at the thematic meeting on transport. The situation is deeply worrying for this not-for-profit organisation that was set up by good people who have continued doing their good work. I know how much effort and commitment they have put in. All of the organisation's buses are accessible, low to the ground buses. They do not have to bring down a ramp at the back of the bus in the way that is necessary for many rural Local Link buses. The organisation specifically sourced low to the ground buses in Scotland and Wales and imported them. It was very smart in how it tackled the project. It picked up second hand parts for buses and stored them as a preventative measure to avoid it being too costly to fix the buses. I specifically wish to bring that to the attention of the Minister of State because it is not progression. For this organisation to lose routes, especially given that its buses are already fitted for all passengers to access through the same door, which is a significant part of why the buses are so important going forward, is not the direction in which we should go. I would like that issue to be considered.

Ireland has come a long way in recent years by ratifying the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities but, and this is not to point fingers, people waited 11 years for that ratification to take place. There is a great deal of hurt and pain because of that. The Minister referred to the optional protocol and I was a little disappointed that there are no specifics or dates. People watching the proceedings today want to know the specific date the optional protocol will be ratified. They would ask why we have to wait for the report at the end of the year for that to happen. Perhaps we can get some information on that as well, because that has been their main focus.

I will conclude as I have gone over time. I wished to mention many other things, but the time management is my own fault. As regards the isolation hubs, Clare County Council does not have any. I have talked to the housing department and the officials said it has no isolation units at present. I was wondering whether we could use them for adaptive housing. We have five in Clare who are still in nursing homes.