Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the witnesses. It is disappointing that the Minister for Health, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, did not see fit to attend. While no one can doubt the Minister of State's commitment, given the scale of the issue involved and the failure to progress disability services, the least families would expect is the presence of the Cabinet Minister.

The evidence is overwhelming that progressing disability services is currently a failure. It is failing children and families and breaching their rights. It is not providing therapies when they are most needed and effective. All present are aware of individual cases that represent the severe lack of services. Down Syndrome Ireland, AsIAm, Inclusion Ireland and all the other representative groups have comprehensive reports showing the overall situation, from glaring regional variations to no therapies for more than a year, as well as a complete absence of communication. This situation has gone way beyond the point of us sitting around and talking about what a disaster it is. It is a breach of people's fundamental human rights and it is literally ruining people's lives. Every week at the disability matters committee families, advocates, representative groups come in and explain how awful their life is as a result of this. It has reached a point where, as a member of that committee, I am not comfortable with it any more. We do not need more people to come in and tell us how awful it is and how challenging are their day-to-day lives. We do not need that any more. We know that. What we need is action.

The purpose of the disability matters committee is to oversee the implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. It is glaringly obvious at this point that the reason Ireland has not ratified the optional protocol is simply the number of cases that would be taken against the State. As many Deputies have highlighted, it is a breach of people's rights. It is a breach of the convention. If that optional protocol was ratified, a sea of cases would be taken against the State. That is the reality. For too long, the Assisted Decision-Making Capacity Act not having been implemented has been the excuse for not ratifying the optional protocol. The Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) (Amendment) Bill 2022 has been rushed through this week because a case has been taken against the State.

My questions are mainly for the Department. At the committee on children in February, our guests confirmed that none of the children's disability network teams were fully staffed. Three and a half months later, how many of the teams are fully staffed?