Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)

The most disingenuous statement I have seen in a long time is contained in the Minister's proposed amendment to this motion, in which the Government "acknowledges the complexity and cross-cutting nature of the issues involved in preparing the Disability Bill". It took the Government seven long years to realise that but there is still no end in sight.

There was a conference recently in the Mansion House which I was proud to attend with our party spokesperson, Deputy O'Sullivan. We heard, at first hand, what needed to be done from the representatives of citizens with disability and from citizens with disability. It requires relatively small amounts of money. With your background, a Cheann Comhairle, you would readily accede to these demands but the Government will not.

Ireland is an extremely rich country. It is one of the richest in Europe, regardless of whether one calculates it on the basis of GDP or GNP. However, it is a country in which a small population of vulnerable citizens face frustration, distress, fear and pain. They face these conditions as a result of Government choices — there is no other reason. When this Government was formed, it published An Agreed Programme for Government outlining the choices it was prepared to make. On disability it said:

We are committed to building service provision and legislative frameworks which enable people with disabilities to fulfil their potential and make full contribution to the economic and social life of our country.

We will complete the programme of expansion of appropriate care places for people with disabilities, with, in particular, the ending of the inappropriate use of psychiatric hospitals for persons with intellectual disabilities. [That was another badly broken promise.]

We will complete consultations on the Disabilities Bill and will bring the amended Bill through the Oireachtas and include provisions for rights of assessment, appeals, provision and enforcement.

Today is the second anniversary of the day the Government took office, and none of those commitments appears any closer to being honoured today than they were two years ago.

Every waiting list for essential services is either the same or has lengthened. In particular, the nearly 500 people still living in entirely inappropriate conditions in psychiatric hospitals, such as St. Ita's in Portrane, represent a continuing and desperate scandal. From time to time that scandal is highlighted in a graphic manner. The "Prime Time" programme a week ago brought home to many the stark reality of disability in the lives of too many people. We are aware of the statistics and the waiting lists but "Prime Time" performed a valuable public service by putting faces to the statistics and showing the pressure and the pain behind the figures.

What will be done about it? This is not a crisis that can be resolved without money or without a plan. Above all, it cannot be resolved without the political commitment that finally lifts people with disability from the end of the political queue. That is the purpose of this motion. It aims to involve people with disabilities as equal partners in the development of an agreed strategy to begin finally to address the issues facing them within an agreed timeframe and to address those issues on a rights basis. The situation is becoming more urgent and the longer action is delayed, the more trauma many people will experience.

Many of the people with intellectual disability who are in increasingly urgent need of residential facilities are middle aged or older and are depending on increasingly frail and elderly parents. During the past year an agency in Dublin had to take an elderly man into residential care on an emergency basis. It had to treat him as an emergency because his mother, on whom he had depended all his life, had just died at the age of 102 years. There are highly disturbed adults with behavioural and emotional problems, with which their families can no longer cope, who need to be recognised by the State as citizens with the right to support. However, the only support available to them is a lengthening queue.

Respite care is often the only support given to the families involved. It means an occasional break away from home for a week. It is a break from the 24 hour care which the 120,000 outstanding caring citizens provide for people with disability. It can provide enormous relief for families and a chance to gather their strength so they can continue to carry out their work. The care of an adult with intellectual disabilities, often accompanied by physical, emotional or behavioural problems, such as violence, incontinence, shouting and self-infliction of injury, involves 24-hour commitment and dedication. Disability in a family, in the absence of support from the wider community, can mean heartbreak and despair. The "Prime Time" programme graphically displayed this. The time has arrived when even this Government cannot brush cases such as this under the counter.

It has been estimated that approximately €120 million in extra current revenue, with perhaps an additional €80 million in capital revenue, would make significant inroads into waiting lists. It is incredible to consider that in recent months up to €100 million has been wasted, of which €52 million is represented by obsolete voting machines rotting in warehouses, waiting for an election that will never happen. That money could have been spent on these citizens and their families. If the €200 million I mentioned were spent, it would enable people to live in dignity and comfort. It would enable services to be put in place that would contribute to lifelong education to help train people for work and give them hope for the future.

That amount of money, in a budget of up to €30 billion, is a pittance. The amount of additional spending required represents less than 0.5% of our annual budget. In an era when our public finances are still capable of producing massive current budget surpluses — there was good news for the Minister for Finance again a few months ago — it is our shame that we choose to spurn our most vulnerable citizens. Those who should be our first concern are the last concern of the Government. Even if the money is forthcoming, it will take time to build capacity, recruit the specialist teaching and caring staff needed, put the training programmes in place and ensure that the legacy of awareness created by the Special Olympics and the wonderful atmosphere of last summer is developed.

The Government must accept that the time has finally come to confront the need to treat citizens with disability as equal citizens of this Republic. I support the motion.

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