Olivia Mitchell (Dublin South, Fine Gael)

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this Bill. There has been no lack of speakers and I am happy to add my voice to those who have spoken so eloquently in recent months. I have been a Deputy for nearly eight years and cannot recall how often I have spoken on disability issues, yet it is the issue on which I have spoken most frequently. It is one of the issues that has been raised most often in this House on Leaders' Questions, in Private Members' time, by way of parliamentary questions and on the Adjournment. We have discussed practically every aspect of disability and the provision of services for the disabled. For instance, we have discussed schooling, day care for the intellectually disabled, respite places, residential care, mobility issues from tax incentives to obstructed footpaths, the needs of the mentally ill in society, the absence of supports for the mentally ill and the appalling lack of options for accommodation for them, which often has tragic consequences for them and others.

We have discussed disabled persons' grants and the truly appalling situation it is in throughout the country and the failure to address the problem. When I raised the issue with the Minister I left him with the impression that he did not understand the causes of the problem underlying this particular scheme. We have discussed the disbelief and heartbreak caused to families by the added trauma of being told there is little hope of receiving any help towards the costs of adjusting their homes to meet the needs of loved ones who are struck down by debilitating illnesses or accidents, which are devastating and life-changing events for families.

We have discussed the shortage of support workers in all the paramedical areas, including physiotherapists, speech therapists, occupational therapists, psychologists and so on. We have spoken about how the scarcity of such services causes agony for families of the disabled, particularly of young disabled, as it is at this stage that these therapies can have a huge impact on the level of disability the person will sustain into adulthood. Such therapies can have a dramatic effect on the quality of life for the disabled and can help them to achieve their potential, which is all that any of us can aspire to.

However, the problem is that not having these therapies is not impact-neutral. The failure to receive timely therapies is devastating in its consequences as it increases disability over the years. I cannot count the number of parents I have spoken with who have been saddened by witnessing their children becoming locked inside their own worlds, be it due to blindness, deafness or inappropriate behaviour, simply because therapists were unavailable at the critical time to help them develop the communication skills necessary to unlock their worlds. Neither can I count the number of children whose parents watch them become more crippled over time because they did not receive the type of activation and therapies that were necessary during their critical developing years.

For people who are not born disabled but become so later in their lives, such as stroke victims, therapists are critical. However, they do not have them. I cannot count the number of families that fell apart because they were unable to cope with the stress of living with untreated behavioural problems coupled with no respite and no psychological support. For these families, "if only" is the saddest phrase. This is true for all of us, but for these people it has special resonance in the context of the things that could have been done and the life changes which could have resulted if only the services had been available.

We have spoken about the difficulties of the disabled, particularly the physically disabled, to enter the workforce, the extent to which the quota system has been implemented and part M of the building regulations. We have discussed training for the disabled, the need for supported employment and that, for many, reaching 18 is regarded as the end of the State's obligation to them. Consequently, this is the end of any real type of life, effectively making them prisoners in their homes. They stay at home in despair with aging parents who are unable to do anything to help them.

High suicide rates among that young group have been spoken of previously and just now by Deputy Howlin. It is critical for everyone that we have something to do when we wake up in the morning. Most of us go to our eight hours of work, but whatever it is, be it a day activation centre, sheltered employment, part-time employment or full-time employment, everyone needs it. The disabled are no different in this regard.

I wish to highlight the impact of the withdrawal of CE schemes. I understand that employment opportunities for the Celtic tiger cubs have increased, but the disabled are still disabled. Many of them are unable to take up 40 hours of employment per week.

For them the choice is to work for 40 hours or to stay at home. We must gear these schemes towards dealing with the huge lacuna which has been left for many of the disabled in terms of employment.

We have talked about the young chronic sick, a group which all of us would agree is particularly tragic. Many of them are very dependent. They are often totally inappropriately placed in geriatric homes or psychiatric facilities in which they should not be. All these issues have been discussed at great length. We must ask ourselves what we have achieved as a result of all the debates we have had. Have they achieved anything? We have achieved some things. For instance, they demonstrated to all of us, irrefutably, that services for the disabled, right along the continuum from the cradle to the grave, were dismally inadequate. Where those services were not inadequate, they were just non-existent. In fairness to the Government parties, we do not have a monopoly on concern. This view was shared by everybody in the House, that is, that it was something we really had to tackle as a nation. We were all anxious to seek remedies.

The second thing all those debates achieved was unanimity about the hopelessness of proceeding in the way we had in the past, that is, in a piecemeal way of trying to plug service gap holes which emerged in the various areas where demand pressures grew and they became a huge media issue. We would partially deal with such demands and then forget about them. There is unanimity about the hopelessness of erratic budgetary responses which can be good in the good years and fall back in years in which revenues are not as buoyant. The backlogs are never dealt with and in bad years, they increase again.

There is also unanimity about the hopelessness of providing capital moneys for facilities but forgetting about the accompanying revenue funding required. We agree on the hopelessness of meeting the needs of one group at the expense of another and on the hopelessness of the failure to plan for the training of an adequate number of skilled and specialised personnel. There have been almost ten good years with perhaps a couple of years in which the Celtic tiger regressed. Even with the intent to improve facilities, qualified personnel were not available. I refer especially to paramedical services such as physiotherapy and speech therapy, in particular. It is almost impossible to access a speech therapist. Even with all the good intentions to provide the money for speech therapy, the therapists were not available. We could not even attract them home from abroad. I understand some improvement has been made and that the number of places available in physiotherapy, psychology and speech therapy has increased. However, it will still be woefully inadequate even when those additional trained personnel come on stream.

We agreed that what was urgently needed was a comprehensive legislative response which, for the first time in an integrated and holistic way, would outline the rights of the disabled and the way in which the State would meet its responsibilities which flowed from those rights. I agree with what my colleague, Deputy Howlin, said in that nobody expected that rights based legislation would give the disabled rights over anybody else. That was never the intention and was recognised by everybody. Nobody expected that service levels would miraculously overnight go from inadequate or non-existent to perfect. Nobody expected the magic wand approach or that service levels would be divorced from the resources available to provide them. Of course, all services are limited by resources. That is the nature of life in that our standard of living is limited by our income. That is also true for a nation and everybody understood that.

What was expected, however, was an honest attempt to try to make a comprehensive new beginning in the way in which the needs of each individual were established and in the way we met and monitored those needs over the years to ensure that the needs were met and that if the needs changed, those changing needs could be met. Clearly, nobody knows the path of disability which changes over the years as do people's requirements. Even when services are perfect, needs change so ongoing monitoring is essential. When all is said and done, it was a modest aspiration.

What has been so disappointing about the Government's response is that the whole notion that any particular group should have rights established in legislation is seen as an enormous threat to the stability of the country. It is regarded as the unthinkable, the apocalypse and the appalling vista of the Barbarians at the gate, something we could not even contemplate. It is nonsense to respond in this way. It is a complete overreaction and it is a hugely disappointing breach of trust with all those groups involved in the negotiations leading up to the introduction of this Bill, the second attempt to introduce legislation. All those disability groups, their advocates, the disabled themselves and their families who participated in the preparation of and the lead up to this legislation genuinely thought they were on the same wavelength and heading in the same direction as those in Government with whom they were in debate. There was disappointment and outrage at the first disability Bill published prior to the last general election and eventually withdrawn. However, it is nothing compared with this because this is regarded as a breach of trust. The disability groups assumed there would be a partnership approach and they believe they have been let down.

Not only does this legislation not deliver what was anticipated, its wording betrays the real thinking which seems to inform the Bill. The Bill is as much about what the disabled cannot have as about what they can have. It excludes rather includes and it limits rather than embraces. It protects the Department of Finance and not those vulnerable people who need protection. Its spirit is to circumscribe and restrict rather than to grasp this unique opportunity to offer hope and light and a new freedom to the disabled. It is, in its essence, mean-spirited and a really inexplicably defensive response to what promised so much — that is, the process of negotiations with the disability groups — but delivered so little. To me and to everybody who had anything to do with this, it makes no sense to be afraid that the reasonable demands of a vulnerable group of citizens for the opportunity to participate as best they can in the benefits of society will somehow bring ruin to our door and bring our economy crashing down. It is nonsense. We have many things to fear. There are many threats to the Celtic tiger but the disabled cannot be numbered among them.

Even the definition of disability was mean-spirited. It sought to limit anybody who might benefit from being labelled "disabled". For instance, it excludes people in full-time employment. Even though to be in full-time employment, one would have needed the supports which came as a result of being disabled, one is excluded from the definition. It seems to be trying to prevent such people from availing of any benefits which might accrue to them. It did not recognise the possibility of episodic illness or disability. People must have an ongoing disability, yet so many illnesses are episodic. Mental illness and physical disability can be episodic. These people can be brought back in to full participation in the workforce and society if they have the supports during those episodes of disability, yet the legislation seems to be trying to exclude them.

I do not want to go through each aspect of the Bill and criticise it because the Minister knows the criticisms and the defects which have been highlighted by the various groups which have made submissions and by Members who have spoken. The reason I wanted to speak and to add my voice to those who have spoken is to impress on the Minister and the Cabinet that something can be salvaged from this Bill. Flawed as it is, we can give some meaning and reason to all the years of debate, preparation and promise if the Government shows some generosity of spirit and accepts the necessary amendments to change this Bill into one which is meaningful.

Fine Gael and the other Opposition parties could vote down the Bill and reject it out of hand but all of us are conscious that while it might be politically smart to do that and give us some political satisfaction, it may not serve the needs of the disabled in the long run. God only knows when another disability Bill will come before the House. This may be our last chance for years to do something significant to benefit the disabled and to change the mindset that sees the disabled as a drain on our resources instead of valued citizens.

My colleagues, Deputies Twomey, Stanton and others, will submit amendments to the Bill. However, the kind of amendments that are required to change the Bill into a meaningful measure are substantial amendments which have financial implications and they must come from the Government. The reason I stand up here today is to plead with the Government to bring forward those amendments. I plead with the Minister and his colleagues not to throw away this opportunity to make the legislation meaningful. Even as legislators it is not often we get the opportunity to do something that will benefit many into the future. It is not an opportunity we get every day of the week to directly impact for good on the lives of many, the people who depend entirely on us to do something for them.

I ask the Minister not to waste this opportunity but to bring forward those amendments. None of us has anything to fear from meeting our obligations to the disabled.

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