Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, and the officials. Yesterday, at a meeting of the Joint Committee on Children, Equality, Disability, Intergration and Youth, which Mr. O'Shea attended, we discussed autism spectrum disorder. There was a pushback from officials because we were talking about legislation. This comes back to Senator Clonan's point. If the Minister of State had legislation at her back, she would have a lot more strength because things would have to be done. The Peter Tyndall report, which was done in 2021, said it was a disgrace that we politicians had not done something in the area of transport for people with disabilities. Here we are coming to the end of 2023 and we are still talking about something we might do and how we might design something. My opinion is very straightforward. If the Minister of State had the legislation at her back, the job would be done. That is why we need to get the protocols put in place. We are trying to create as much legislation and protection as we can before we do things. If we did our jobs and provided that support, we would not need to put legislation and protection in place.

We have done a disservice to people with disabilities for too long. The budget is next week and there is an expectation that things will happen with regard to transport supports. I hope that is the case.

Housing adaptation grants are provided for houses that have not been universally designed. We can talk about universal design but that will only happen in new buildings going forward. It will not happen in buildings that were not universally designed, so we will have to go back and retrofit them. Additional funds must be provided to people with disabilities so that they can access their houses.

This comes back to another issue, although I may be wrong on this as well. The Indecon report found that every person with a disability faces additional living costs of €12,000 per annum. To spare us all of the strategies to try to make everything sustainable and whatever else, why not give disabled people a financial support to enable them to provide whatever form of transport they need in the circumstances in which they find themselves? This would mean the Minister of State and every other Minister would not be looking at things in the round but would actually get something done. That is why I feel frustrated in this committee. Members said at a private meeting that we are frustrated because we talk a lot about the problems but we are not inching towards solutions. That is not a criticism of the Minister of State because she is a constituency colleague and I know her heart is in the right place. She needs to have that legislation at her back. The other Departments that are placed low on the scoresheet would also improve because they would be legally obliged to ensure services and supports are put in place.

To take the issue of school transport, which has arisen in the past three or four weeks, Ábalta Special School in Galway and other special needs schools do not have a school bus. If legislation provided that children were entitled to school transport, the bus would be there and the parents would not be trying to find a way around all of this. In September 2023, we still had children with special needs who do not have a school transport service to bring them to special needs schools because there is no bus. We all know there should be a bus. I support everything the Minister of State is doing, and we should be doing a lot more to help her do a lot more, if she knows what I mean. The optional protocol is one step. It sets the bar, and we have to reach the bar.