Pauline Tully (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome our guests and thank them for their informative and thought-provoking presentations. We are discussing how to deal with a humanitarian crisis and the fact such a crisis or emergency disproportionately affects disabled people compared with the rest of the population. We came through the crisis that was the Covid pandemic. We are witnessing another crisis in Europe with the Ukrainian war. Of course, unfortunately, there are many wars happening all over the world, some of which have been going on for several years, with millions of people killed, displaced or injured, ending up with a disability themselves. Of course, there is the ongoing climate emergency that will increase in terms of severity and the number of events.

What our guests are basically saying is that if disabled people are included in the preparation for the response to a crisis, we will have a better response that will ensure more people will survive. What they are saying applies across the board. If disabled people are involved in all aspects of policy development across all Departments, such as in respect of housing, transport and so on, we will have better outcomes. That seems to be an ongoing problem here. How can we improve inclusion and have more disabled people involved in preparation across all policy areas, but particularly in the context of crises?

To take the Covid response as an example, a vulnerable persons subgroup was set up as part of the National Public Health Emergency Team, NPHET, initially. If memory serves me right, it was disbanded in mid-2020. Even though there were calls for it to be re-engaged, that was not done. That was important because the response to special education, for example, was then not seen as an essential service and it was delayed. Disabled people were not necessarily prioritised in the roll-out of the vaccine. Carers definitely were not prioritised. The way carers were treated throughout the Covid pandemic and the fact they were not even considered for the Covid payment afterwards was disgraceful. How can we improve the involvement of disabled people? Are there good examples, especially in Europe, in the context of how countries are responding to the Ukrainian crisis, for example?

Do we have any data on the number of disabled people who are coming to Ireland and what kind of supports they are getting here? We may not have any, because it is ongoing and new and our data on disability in this country is quite poor.

I have a question specifically for Dr. Keogh. We have a high rate of poverty in Ireland among disabled people and a lot of social exclusion. Some 28% of the population is at risk of energy poverty. Do we need to look at our climate action plan again and adjust it, even though it is only from last year? Do we need to look at that more in respect of including disabled people?

Ms Naughton said there was consultation with the Disability Federation of Ireland, DFI, which does a lot of good work. However, it is not a disabled persons’ organisation, DPO. Is there involvement with DPOs directly as well in the work that Ms Naughton does?