David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)

I am pleased to speak on the motion. The Disability Act and the departmental sectoral plans are key elements of the national disability strategy which was launched in September 2004. The debate on improving services and supports for people with disabilities began with the establishment of the Commission on the Status of People with Disabilities in November 1993. The report of the commission, A Strategy for Equality, was published in 1996 and its aim was to ensure people with disabilities lead full lives and are fully included in all aspects of society.

Since the publication of the report there has been much debate and controversy surrounding disability issues with representative organisations fighting hard to ensure people with disabilities are given equal opportunities. I was disappointed with the lack of debate on the sectoral plans. I was unable to attend the launch of the plans due to the extremely short notice given. I was not automatically furnished with a copy of each of the plans — I had to request them. Open and frank debate on the content of the plans, in addition to all elements of the national disability strategy, is essential if the strategy is to succeed. I was also disappointed that none of the plans has been discussed by the relevant committees on an individual basis. I urge that those discussions take place because they would be useful for all involved in the process, giving elected representatives and disability organisations the opportunity to put their views forward. An open debate is important and I hope that the way in which the matter was launched — on a Friday evening in July with 24 hours notice given to Opposition Members — was not designed to keep us out of the loop.

From the content of the sectoral plans, it is clear that much work has gone into their development. Therefore, it would be appropriate to have their content reviewed and success reported on annually. Each of the committees shadowing the Departments concerned should have an opportunity to discuss how the plans are going annually. Obviously, there will be a three-year review. The proposal for an annual review was supported by my colleagues in the committee's debate last week, but has the Minister of State given it any consideration? The committee has probably requested that an annual review take place and I hope that will be facilitated.

I wish to highlight some of my concerns. Regarding part 2 of the Department of Health and Children's sectoral plan, the assessment of need process in the Disability Act attracted the most controversy during the debate on the Act. For children aged under five years, part 2 will begin on 1 June 2007, but children aged between five and 18 years must wait longer because the assessment of need process is being implemented in tandem with the Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Act 2004. It was probably an oversight that the Minister did not mention the 2004 Act at the beginning of his speech when he outlined how the national disability strategy comprises four key elements, but it is an important part of the strategy and should be included. He mentioned it later, but it was curious that he did not mention it at the start. Perhaps there was a reason. Adults wishing to have their needs assessed will need to wait for more than five years with the timescale in the sectoral plan given as no later than the end of 2011, ten years after the scrapping of the Disability Bill 2001, the infamous "Wallace" Bill.

The appointment of assessment and liaison officers, their training and the development of protocols and regulations pertaining to the assessment of need is due to take place in April or May 2007. From where will these people be recruited, what qualifications will they hold and how many people must be recruited? The Minister of State stated there would be more than 1,000 new frontline staff and that €170 million had been allocated during the past two years. How is this money being distributed within the HSE, will the processes for staffing etc. be different in each HSE area and will there be an overall plan?

There are many concerns regarding the statement of services and progression of unmet needs. How will the HSE and the Department of Health and Children tackle these issues? All of the disability groups called for rights-based legislation and the ring-fencing of funding to tackle these issues. The establishment of a national disability database was supposed to go some way towards addressing these issues, but concerns have been raised, in particular by the Disability Federation of Ireland, about the voluntary nature of the database. I raised this matter on Committee Stage and raise it in the House because unmet needs and improved services are essential matters for people with disabilities.

Another issue of importance under the remit of the Department of Health and Children is the establishment of the health information and quality authority, HIQA, and the development of national standards for people with disabilities, promised to be in place by April 2007. A few minutes ago, the Taoiseach told the House the health Bill to provide for the establishment of the HIQA and the office of the chief inspector of social services on a statutory basis will not be published until 2007. It would also have provided for a registration system in respect of services for children, the elderly and people with disabilities to replace existing registration procedures in the Health (Nursing Homes) Act 1990 and the Child Care Acts 1991 and 2001. The change means it will not be published until February at the earliest, but the timescale in which to enact the legislation before an election will be short. This is a concern.

The National Disability Authority has been working on this matter for some years and the Minister of State has assured me that legislation to establish the HIQA is at an advanced stage. Perhaps it could be brought forward and published before Christmas. This is an important matter and the legislation needs to be published as soon as possible with a view to enacting it soon afterwards. Originally, the legislation was due in 2006.

The national disability advisory committee will monitor implementation of the national disability strategy and give a voice to disability organisations and other stakeholders. The committee was to be established by the end of this year, but the question is whether it will be running by then. The Minister of State advises that he hopes to have proposals shortly, but how soon will that be? It is hoped the committee will have its first meeting with senior officials by the end of the year. The committee will provide an important mechanism for service users to comment on their experiences and put forward their concerns. It will also replace the disability legislation consultation group, DLCG. I urge the Minister of State to ensure the service users are included and that he reaches out to the people who walked away from the DLCG to invite them back and create an inclusive group.

The main issue in terms of the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment's sectoral plan is the need to improve the workforce participation of people with disabilities of working age who are able and have a desire to work. The Department of Social and Family Affairs and FÁS have responsibility for vocational training and other education and workplace support initiatives for people with disabilities. It is disappointing that many financial supports available to employers, such as the wage subsidy scheme, do not have enough take-up for the annual budget to be spent each year. This is not the Government's fault, but perhaps communications and information issues must be ironed out so people can be aware of what is available and what can and should be done.

People with disabilities have a higher than average risk of poverty and a lower than average employment rate. At a committee meeting today, the Combat Poverty Agency highlighted the issue of people with disabilities having higher risks of poverty than others. Employment in open work environments and rehabilitative employment in supported environments are essential for people with disabilities. When employed, they often become confined in low-paid jobs at the lower levels of companies. Education, training and the availability of adaptive technologies are essential to allow people with disabilities the opportunity to advance in the workplace.

An argument made during the debate on the Disability Act related to the 3% employment quota in the Civil Service. Many believed that 3% was too low, given the percentage of the population assessed as having disabilities. Are there any plans to raise the level of the quota? It has been met in most, if not all, Departments, but the 3% ceiling might be too low. Perhaps we should increase it gradually to reflect the percentage of people with disabilities in the population.

The Department of Transport has a sectoral plan. A main issue raised by my colleagues and I on Committee Stage was the lack of available transport for people with disabilities, but I am pleased to hear from the Minister of State's speech that this matter will be addressed. The availability and affordability of public and private transport are key to allowing people with disabilities to be fully included in society. Transport is essential if people are to get to work or health or other social service appointments or if they are to have social lives and so on. The issue of a lack of transport is especially important for older people with disabilities, particularly those who live in rural areas and must rely on limited public transport initiatives or private taxi services or remain confined at home.

Older people can avail of the free transport service, but that is no good unless there is a public transport service available. For a number of years, there has been a call, particularly by the Irish Senior Citizens Parliament and Age Action, for a voucher system for people with disabilities and older people living in rural areas to access their rights to free transport.

In addition to an improved public transport service to connect large towns and cities and an improved rural transport scheme, I have concerns regarding disabled persons' parking cards, grants for people with disabilities for car alterations and accessible taxis. These matters were raised on Committee Stage and must be addressed. At a committee meeting last week, we dealt with them at length. People using disabled persons' parking spaces must be dealt with severely because those places are scarce.

One of the main responsibilities of the Department of Social and Family Affairs in respect of the national disability strategy is the provision of a personal advocacy service for people with disabilities through Comhairle. This service was to be established under the Comhairle (Amendment) Bill 2004, but the Bill was withdrawn and replaced last week by the Citizens Information Bill 2006, which will be debated in the Dáil shortly. I welcome this measure because we have been waiting for it for a long time.

Disability groups, particularly the NDA and Inclusion Ireland, have highlighted the urgency in introducing the service. It will form a major strand of the strategy and will be essential in guaranteeing people with disabilities access to support, services and assistance when accessing health and social services, particularly the assessment of needs process and the statement of services. It is envisaged this service will be in operation by 2008 and additional funding for it has been allocated to Comhairle in recent budgets. I welcome an expansion of existing services. Comhairle will also be responsible for the overseeing of a sign language interpretation service, which is greatly needed by people with hearing impairments as current services are limited.

All the main disability organisations have called on the Government to introduce a cost of disability payment to address the substantially higher living costs which people with disabilities face. This payment was first recommended by the Commission on the Status of People with Disabilities in 1996. It was examined by a working group chaired under the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness which concluded that in the absence of an assessment of need process and comprehensive data, it was not feasible. I want to see advances in this area, given that the post-census survey on people with disabilities is underway which should provide comprehensive data and also given that assessments of needs will be underway in the future. People with disabilities face higher transport costs, higher housing costs, higher education and social services costs and often, in particular where older people are concerned, higher heating costs. A supplementary payment would go some way towards helping these people with disabilities who live on their own meet these costs and I urge the Government to consider this in the forthcoming budget. It would be important to see this coming about.

On the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, recently I raised in committee the matter of the Barcelona Declaration and its implementation at local authority level. The Minister of State assures me it has been adopted by more than 100 local authorities. I want to see all the local authorities adopting it. Adopting it means nothing unless it is acted upon. The Minister of State, Deputy Fahey, might inform us, by correspondence or otherwise because he may not have time this evening, what monitoring is being done on the implementation of the Barcelona Declaration and what extra funding, if any, has been made available to the local authorities to implement the Barcelona Declaration if they sign up to it. I am aware of a couple of local authorities which have refused to sign it because they did not want to sign something to which they would be paying only lip-service. They state they will sign it if they get the funding but there is no point in fooling people and signing up to something they cannot do. I understand this was signed by former Minister, Dick Spring, in 1995 on behalf of the Government and it is the Government's responsibility to ensure there is a stream of funding to enable its implementation.

I also raised the matter of assessment of housing need. This was another matter of concern during the Disability Act debate, in particular, the assessment of need process.

I also asked the Minister about the review of the disabled persons' grants scheme. The Minister promised me on Committee Stage that he would provide information on housing assessment legislation and the grants scheme. Perhaps he would provide this information shortly. They all are issues regarding building control regulations, Part M and the accessibility of houses and public buildings for people with disabilities.

On the matter relevant to the Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources of the coverage of major sporting events for people with disabilities by broadcasters, I am happy the Minister of State has agreed there should be some coverage of these and that he would examine it. I welcome that and would welcome updates on the discussions that might occur on this matter.

A matter which concerned all the sectoral plans is financial accountability and monitoring and review mechanisms which will ensure each Department complies with its sectoral plan. The monitoring and review process must be transparent to ensure services and development included in the sectoral plans are correctly implemented. Regular and comprehensive reports from the new monitoring committee will be essential to the success of the sectoral plans and the national disability strategy as a whole.

I take the opportunity to wish the officials, the people who drew up the plans and those who will be responsible for implementing them, the best because it is so important that this succeeds. As I stated at the outset, it is also important that there is open, honest and frank debate on all aspects of these plans and all aspects of the strategy, both in the committee and in this Chamber, and that every opportunity be given to allow that happen.

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