Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael)

I thank members of the committee for their invitation to come before them to detail the wide range of work being undertaken within the Department of Children, Disability and Equality with regard to improving service provision for people with disabilities. I wish to express how pleased I am to attend this committee and I wish members well in their work. I look forward to engaging with them.

I follow the Chairman's sympathies by extending my condolences to the Browne family following the passing of Jacqui. She was a very valued chair of the Disabled Persons Organisation Network. She played a key role in contributing to many disability policies and initiatives, including the forthcoming national disability strategy. I sincerely thank her for that. I extend my condolences to her family.

At the outset, it is important to reiterate that the Government is committed to delivering a step change in the delivery of services for disabled people and their families. Since being appointed as Minister of State with responsibility for disability, I have travelled the country and met disabled people, their families, stakeholder groups and experts in this area, where I have learned what is working well, what is not working and areas that need improvement.

It is important to acknowledge what we all know: services are not where they need to be. Too many people are waiting for an assessment of need. We do not have enough therapists in the system, meaning people are not getting the help they need in a timely manner. Not enough respite is being provided. We need more homes to allow people live full and independent lives. It is important to note that we are making good headway in this regard. Just last week I was in Cork, where I joined the Tánaiste, Deputy Simon Harris, in opening two respite homes for adults and children. However, we need much more of this across the country.

Ministers across all Departments are committed to working to ensure that people with disabilities can live full lives with the same rights and access to services - access to education, transport, sport, culture, a career and the means to live independently - as every other citizen enjoys. As a collective, the Government is keenly aware that there is a need for improvements in a variety of areas, and I assure members that this Government is absolutely committed to a step change in disability service provision.

Ensuring that robust and dynamic services are available for all, including those with disabilities, is of course the responsibility of more than just the Department of Children, Disability and Equality. It requires an all-of-government response if the needs of all citizens are to be met. I will be very focused on ensuring that all Departments are aware of, and act on, their commitments in this space. I have been engaging with my colleagues across Government in this regard since being appointed as Minister of State with special responsibility for disability and will continue to do so going forward.

It is also worth noting that, in addition to this committee, there is also a dedicated Cabinet committee focused on disability, on which I sit as Minister of State with responsibility for disability, alongside my colleague, the Minister, Deputy Foley. Having these two committees with a clear focus on disability clearly highlights the cross-party recognition for the importance of this area. The establishment of a dedicated unit within the Department of the Taoiseach will also help to drive the reforms and the changes disabled people and their families so desperately need. Perhaps the most important crosscutting piece of work currently under way is the finalisation of the national disability strategy, the national human rights strategy for disabled people. This strategy is the successor to the national disability inclusion strategy and I am pleased to say it is now at a very advanced stage, with publication expected very shortly. The strategy will operate as a framework for the co-ordination of policy across Government that affects the lives of disabled people, ensuring a whole-of-Government approach to the advancement of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and collaboration on crosscutting issues. To ensure this strategy met the needs of disabled people, my Department undertook an extensive consultation process that included 34 focus groups, more than 80 written submissions, almost 500 responses to a national survey, and five town-hall events around the country. Based on this feedback from disabled people, their families and communities, the strategy is set upon five thematic pillars that capture the range of experiences affecting disabled people in their daily lives. The strategy will take ambitious action across these pillars to better support them to access good education, meaningful employment and to access arts, culture and sport, healthcare and reliable transport, which are the foundational elements we all need to support us in living independent lives of our own choosing. The voices and the lived experience of disabled people have shaped this strategy and its commitments. I look forward to continuing the partnership through this implementation.

Speaking of the engagement with disabled people, I am also personally aware of the need to meet with and hear the perspectives of advocacy groups in the disability space. As previously mentioned, since taking up my position I have made it a priority to visit services, to meet people with disabilities and to sit down with advocacy groups to hear their views on what is working well and what needs to be improved. These meetings have been of immense value, as understanding the lived experiences of people with disabilities is the key to improving service provision, and I will continue to work with advocacy groups to achieve the best outcomes.

Of course, we know adequate resourcing is required to meet our ambition and deliver better outcomes. With this in mind, some €3.2 billion has been allocated by the HSE disability services in budget 2025. This increases the overall budget by €1.2 billion since 2020 and providing an 11.5% increase compared with 2024. This represents an increase of €333 million, the largest ever increase in the disability services budget, highlighting the commitment to a step change in service provision. Through this budget the Department funds, via the HSE, specialist community-based disability services, which are designed for the 90,000 people with a significant intellectual disability, autism or a complex physical disability. These services include multidisciplinary therapies for children, adult day-services, personal assistance, home support, respite and residential services.

While much progress has been made in specialist disability services, I am aware that much more needs to be done to address the unmet need. This will require additional investment. In this regard two pieces of work are under way. The first involves increasing the capital allocation for specialist disability services in the context of the review of the national development plan. Simply put, we are not spending enough on specialist disability services. We need more respite services, homes, provision of day services and upgrades of existing buildings and facilities. We also need to increase revenue funding through the Estimates process. As the committee will be aware, the programme for Government commits to considering the development of a multi-annual approach to disability services. This is essential in order to provide clarity and certainty for service providers who do so much good work but currently find it difficult to plan to expand their services. As part of this work, we must look at the substantial investment already being made in services and assess how best we can maximise the impact of the €3.2 billion in the budget. This will require input from all stakeholders, including service users, service providers and the HSE.

The Department will also be progressing the Action Plan for Disability Services 2024-2026. We have set ambitious targets in the plan to provide for unmet need and demographic change. This ambition is important to generate commitment to the vision we have for disability services in Ireland. To date, the Government has supported the plan with approximately €116 million in new development funding - €74 million in 2024 and €42 million in 2025 - with some funding from the existing level of service allocation also funding service expansion to accommodate demographic change. While this is only a quick overview of some of the work being undertaken by the Department with regard to the wider disability agenda and the investment made in services, I look forward to engaging further with the committee.