Barry Andrews (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

I thank Deputy Haughey for sharing his time and I agree with what he said. It is a real opportunity for people with disabilities to break out of various cycles of disadvantage caused to them. The issue I would like to highlight is employment. If an advocate for a person with a disability does nothing else, I hope he or she will assist that person to find employment. It has become more difficult for people with a disability to find employment. Because of the over-regulation of employment it is now harder for an employer to take somebody on as an employee if that person has a disability, consistent medical requirements and accessibility issues. If he or she did nothing else, an advocate could address such problems.

One stark statistic emerged from a recent meeting I had with the spinal injuries action association. In Switzerland, 90% of people who suffer a spinal injury are able to find employment within the first two years, whereas the equivalent figure in Ireland is less than 20%. Many people with a disability are currently sitting at home following the aggravated trauma of injury in addition to suffering isolation and disconnection from a society in which they had played a full role heretofore. Those comparative figures mean there is something missing.

As Deputy Haughey said, it could be a watershed for the hundreds of people concerned who could and should be in employment, if an advocate was able to represent them directly. Such an advocate could bring to their attention information about courses, supports, services and resources.

Over the past two or three years, we have had a great debate about rights issues. Many people have said that the legislation should be rights-based rather than a Bill that, while similar, is not exactly the same. As we now have much more assessment of needs, there is a problem with the constitutional position. In future, we must also address the issue of whether we should have a constitutional provision for people with disabilities.

Deputy Quinn said that advocacy is built into the Irish political system, which is correct. As politicians we are constantly acting as advocates, steering people toward services to which they are entitled, but the contents of this Bill will reduce the need for backbenchers to do some of this work. Quite frankly, that is a good thing, although such work is central to our democracy and something of which I am very protective. Many people are sophisticated and intellectual about clientelism but we are always no more than 24 hours away from talking to constituents. We are never more than an e-mail, phone call or text message away either. That linkage with the voters is crucial and there is no equivalent in western Europe.

I remember canvassing outside Lansdowne Road on the occasion of an international match. It is slightly outside my constituency but people were coming there from my constituency by DART. A Frenchman came up to me and said "I can't believe that you're standing here; if you were a politician in France you would be annihilated and slaughtered because that is the level of hostility there." In Ireland, however, public representatives have a two-fold role in this regard — not only do we direct people to services but we also enhance our democracy. I have absolutely no problem in defending what others witheringly refer to as clientelism. I consider it to be advocacy of democracy in the raw and something we should be proud to protect. The Bill proposes to establish a statutorily-based service for people with disabilities, which is a great development and an extension of what we do.

Yesterday, I met representatives of the Carmona services, which are run by the St. John of God order. They provide services for people with intellectual disabilities and, clearly, resources are always a problem. One of the worst problems is the lack of residential places for older adults with intellectual disabilities. Such persons might be aged 40 or 45 and are now living longer. Their parents are in their late 60s or early 70s and in certain circumstances are unable to cope with challenging behaviour, physical and mental health problems and intellectual disability. Through the Bill's provision of advocacy, we will be able to allow access for such people to the required services.

During the course of the meeting with the Carmona representatives a situation was highlighted which is central to many of the problems facing our health sector in the provision of services, which this Bill is designed to address. The public representatives present asked the Carmona people how they went about getting approval for a service, course or other things they wished to provide for their clients. First, they have to make contact with the local office in Bray. If Bray agrees to provide the service, they must then contact their own governing body, the St. John of God order. To approve the request, the latter body must go to Naas, the famous central unit of the HSE. Naas must then check with Bray that this service is an appropriate one and has been agreed with Carmona. If that is agreed, Naas contacts the St. John of God order and tells them that it is all right to carry on with this service. The St. John of God order then contacts Carmona and the service is approved.

By my reckoning, that is a total of six steps before such a service can be approved. If holidays, loss of files or other delays are included, there may be a six-month gap between the identification of a problem and its solution. In addition, the longer these problems are left unsolved the harder it will be to reverse their worst effects. There is something wrong at the core of the health system if it is that difficult to provide such benefits.

I spoke about employment and structural problems but we also discussed the provision of social and recreational opportunities at the Carmona meeting. As we all know, the special Olympic games were a huge success but there can be a long gap in the provision of the services to which I have just referred. One of the problems being experienced in Carmona is that while there are hundreds of volunteers they cannot undertake the work they wish to do without the provision of trained staff. This is one of the areas for which resources are not available. We should be examining the key issue of life-enhancing — the current buzzword is value-added — activities that would make the lives of those suffering from disabilities tolerable at least, if not an awful lot better. In Dún Laoghaire, those working in this area simply want to bring people out shopping or to the cinema, yet they cannot do so because trained staff are not available. This runs contrary to the core issue the Taoiseach has been talking about concerning active citizenship. We have a great cohort of volunteers ready to undertake crucial and noble work but they are unable to do it because the Government cannot turn on the tap to provide the necessary resources. That is wrong.

The Bill will provide for a team of advocates and Deputy Haughey spoke about a budget of €55 million. In that case, we will have a body of corporate knowledge that can be built up in the country and will provide the context for proper policy decisions and resource allocation in the sector.

I warmly welcome the Bill, which will make a great difference. I commend it to the House.

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