Eileen Flynn (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Before I begin I want to say my comments are not personal to anybody at the table. I want people to know this. I am absolutely blue in the face from strategies that have not worked for many communities in this country. In the next 30 to 40 years, we will look back on how we treated people and children with disabilities and how we failed them. I am sure to God the Government will owe these people and their families an apology. I cannot say I have never seen the likes of it because I was reared with the inequalities that people with disabilities and the Traveller community face on a daily basis. One of the root problems is all of these strategies have "action one" and "action two". They state they will be enacted within five years but five years later, there is no sign of them being enacted.

I will speak for myself and not on behalf of the committee but we are having conversations about the Disability Act being outdated. We need to look first at reviewing the Act and a way forward for people with disabilities. There is the issue of appropriate accommodation and housing for people who have disabilities. It is nowhere in sight. Next February, I will have been a member of the committee for two years. We have made recommendations, and people from the Department have made recommendations, but there has not been one implementation. This is what we are lacking as country. We have the answers in every strategy. I know with all my heart that in the next strategy people will mean well about including people with disabilities. I know it and I see it. I have been involved in activism for more than 16 years. What has changed for people with disabilities in this country? Little or nothing has changed except it is more acceptable to have a person with a disability at home and we no longer call people names. It happens to a certain extent but we no longer put people away for shame because they have disability. This is one positive thing.

I do not want to go off the point but I am so frustrated. That is not the fault of anybody around the table. We are looking for another strategy but we know that nobody will be held accountable for when its recommendations will not be implemented. I worked with the National Traveller Women's Forum on the Traveller girl strategy. The National Traveller Women's Forum is blue the face, as are a lot of organisations, looking for the implementation of strategies but it does not happen.

If we were to have a national equality and inclusion strategy for people with disabilities, what would it look like? How would it differ from the previous one? What actions would be in it? Where would the implementation be? I want to stress the issue of implementation. We have spoken about local authorities. The starting point for me would be to make all parks accessible for all children with disabilities. I have said this previously at the committee. This could be a starting point. We could go on about housing and appropriate lighting and they should all be in place as well, but if we really mean action why is it not been done?

Tomorrow I will attend a meeting of the Joint Committee on Key Issues Affecting the Traveller Community. It is different from this committee but, again, nobody is held accountable for not living up to recommendations. We could have a recommendation to have every park in the country accessible for disabled children. Five years later, it will not have been done and we will go back to the drawing board. The answers are there. The NGOs have the answers. People with disabilities themselves have the answers. For me, it is about implementation and what the next strategy will look like. How can we make sure it is acted on? I thank the witnesses for coming before the committee. I have been around strategies for years, such as the National Traveller and Roma Inclusion Strategy 2017-2021 and national disability strategies. Some good work has come out of them and nobody is saying otherwise. There are good workers in the Departments. We genuinely need more action. Covid was a big excuse for people not getting services. I am not an anti-vaxxer and Covid was very real. I got my vaccinations and all that jazz. However, it was used as an excuse to keep kicking the can down the road. How do we put our money where our mouth is?