Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)

It must be his week on the stump. The matter I raise is the lack of spaces for people with intellectual disabilities despite increased funding. During the past year, Fine Gael spokesperson, Deputy Stanton, and I spent months debating complicated disability legislation and trying to persuade the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform to amend it. Not only did he show no interest in making changes but he showed no interest in the Bill.

All the points I and my colleagues raised during debate of the Disability Bill on the lack of spaces and services for people who suffer from disability have been borne out by a report published by a Government body, the National Intellectual Disability Database, charged with collecting the type of data which is essential in planning a proper service for people with intellectual disabilities. Its latest report is staggering. It notes, for example, that 2,270 people with intellectual disabilities are still without a day service, full-time care service or both. It also reports that no plans were made to respond to the high birth rate in the 1960s and 1970s and higher life expectancy rates among people with disability. It notes that the proportion of people with a severe disability who are aged 35 years and over increased from 29% in 1974 to 49% in 2005. The report also states that the multiannual funding announced in last year's budget has made no inroads into reducing the number of people with intellectual disabilities requiring a day care or residential place.

It is astonishing that none of the points made by Opposition Deputies during the debate on the Disability Bill, when every nuance of life for people with a physical or intellectual disability was discussed, was taken into account. Despite the fanfare with which the new Bill was introduced, nothing has happened and it has still not been signed into law. The Minister informed us that we must wait until proper services are in place before he will sign the Act section by section. Opposition Deputies specifically asked that he avoid this course of action but he has insisted on pursuing it.

In response to the recent report of the National Intellectual Disability Database, Deirdre Carroll, chief executive of the National Association for People with an Intellectual Disability, NAMHI, stated:

The Government is just throwing money at the situation without looking at the level of need. Some people will spend their lives without a service while others will die in large institutions because there is no money to move them out.

After watching on RTE last night the television documentary, "Asylum", which dealt with the few remaining residents in one of our mental institutions, it is clear the Government must make mental health services a priority. It is, however, so flush with money it no longer cares what it does. As the Private Members' debate demonstrated, a fraction of what the Government has wasted would be sufficient to put in place all the services required for those with intellectual disabilities. It is estimated that a further €400 million is needed to provide a sufficient number of services and residential and day care places for people with an intellectual disability.

While advances have been made in securing additional day care places, progress thus far has come about as a result of continuous pressure from those who have fought on behalf of people with disability. Instead of making a generous gesture, the Government has shown a grudging attitude to providing additional services. According to the report of the National Intellectual Disability Database, 284 day places, in addition to almost 2,500 residential care places, will be required over the next five years. One judges a society by how it deals with its most defenceless citizens. This Government has a very poor record on intellectual disability. The amount of money it has squandered would have gone a long way towards fixing what desperately needs to be put right.

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