Ms Lorraine Dempsey:

Yes; if I cannot cover all of them some of my colleagues might jump in. Regarding digital empowerment, Inclusion Ireland ran a right to connect conference last December on International Day of People with Disabilities, which looked at people's access, particularly because of Covid-19, to both the web and the infrastructure, for instance, smartphones and iPads. We take for granted that everybody hits their teenage years and gets access to a smartphone once they go to post-primary school. Some adults with intellectual disabilities, however, do not have any connectivity and have been extremely isolated both when living at home with ageing parents or in services. What we would like to see installed is that people have a right to connect and again, looking a couple of years ahead and at potential future restrictions, that people are supported with the infrastructure, which incorporates things like the national broadband plan, as well as in terms of financing.

The interrelationship between poverty and employment stretches back to education. What education path does a person therefore take? If one looks at a special education pathway from the point of a three-year-old, we know that by the time that person is 18 or 19, he or she will probably still be in a special educational setting. We have to look at the outcomes of that, which is quite often young people going into day services that are more special all the time. That leads us into poverty.

There are two reports the committee should be seeking. One is the cost of disability report that is sitting in the Department of Social Protection. As Dr. McCarthy said, we know the cost of disability and the level of poverty right across the strata of people with disabilities and family carers. We need the Government's report to be able to evidence that in figures that the Government itself will accept, however. The other is the capacity review of disability services. It is extremely hard to plan ahead if we do not have sight of what the unmet need is going to be over the next 20 or 30 years. We know it is significant because the report was there and available to the previous Minister for Health, who passed it on to the current Minister for Health and said it was a decision for the new Government to publish that plan. Again, I ask the committee to chase up the capacity review and have it published formally in order that we actually know what we are dealing with as regards disability services and the unmet needs of people with disabilities in the community.

Regarding the right to home care and the statutory scheme, a person does not have the right to stay in his or her own home and be provided with State support to do so. A person can, however, have the right to go into a nursing home and have the care he or she requires. That is not even suitable for many elderly people, let alone those under 65. Parents must therefore make decisions with their young persons with disabilities. I am a parent and I have aspirations for all my children. For some of my children, however, my choices are extremely limited if I cannot get the funding in order that they can live independently. And again, living independently does not mean living alone without supports. It means being given the supports so that one can live independently of one's family members.

If we look to ageing parents, Senator Bacik referenced St. Mary's Centre Telford. In the HSE's service plan for 2021, outside of emergency residential placements there is only provision for double-digit figures for planned transitional residential placements. That means significantly fewer than 100 people will be able to plan where they are going to live in the community with the required supports and everybody else will be pushed into emergency placements. At this stage, emergency placements are what we are talking about when parents die. That is a traumatic time for anybody with a disability but to be removed from one's family home and put into an emergency placement, quite often respite, which then means those who would normally have respite in that centre cannot have it there, especially during the time of Covid-19, is no way for future planning for anybody. That is what we are resorting to, however. For the first time in the HSE service plan, therefore, there is provision for planned transitions, that is, incorporating the voice of the person with disability into what they want, for example, who they want to live with, where they would like to live and what life they want to lead. It is led by them. Out of a country of 5.5 million people, however, we have provision for a double-digit number of people to engage in that process. That is scandalous. And when one adds in the 2,900 in congregated settings, I am talking about individuals who are currently living at home. There is very little focus on that cohort. We really need to readdress this in terms of actual transition planning with the voices. That is part of what would be required for the State to meet its obligation in terms of the right to statutory home care

I mentioned broadband with regard to the national development plan. Senator McGreehan mentioned disability awareness training versus having awareness training around environmental issues. If we had both, the Senator would realise that, for example, straws were developed for people with disabilities. They were not developed to put into a cocktail along with an umbrella. The removal of things that contain plastic, such as straws, removes something that is fundamental to some people's ability to drink independently. If, therefore, we have awareness training, which like everything else is siloed, we will miss the impact on certain cohorts within our communities.