David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for allowing me to raise this matter.

We all take the Ombudsman's report very seriously. When the Ombudsman addresses the issues I am about to raise we should take it even more seriously. She maintains that out of the 2,747 formal complaints made last year, only six related to the Disability Act 2005. She expressed her concern that this is a remarkably low level of complaint.

She observes that many public servants have a serious lack of knowledge about their responsibilities under the Disability Act 2005. Despite having made similar comments in the past number of years, it appears that very little has been done to address this, despite the obligations of the Act. She states that if people with disabilities do not have information easily available to let them know how to make a complaint against a public body, then it is no surprise that complaints from them remain remarkably low, year on year.

Does the Minister agree there is inaction among many public bodies in taking their duties under the Disability Act seriously enough and specifically in tackling the knowledge gap among their staff about their responsibilities under the Act? A code of practice for public bodies about their responsibilities under the Act was developed by the National Disability Authority, but many public bodies seem to be unaware of its existence.

The Ombudsman highlights the failure of public bodies to establish an adequate and effective complaints procedure through disability access officers, covered under section 26 of the Act. These are supposed to assist clients with disabilities in accessing public buildings, services and information which has led to people with disabilities simply not being able to seek assistance. The lack of information about access officers has led people to make what are classified as premature complaints to the Ombudsman. These are complaints made before using the complaints mechanism of the public body concerned as this complaints system remains inaccessible to people with disabilities. In fact, of the 105 websites surveyed by the Ombudsman, only 20, that is 19%, contained information about access officers and for many of these, ease of access to the information proved difficult. Only five of the websites surveyed contained information about how to make a complaint specifically in relation to the failure of the body to comply with Part 3 of the Disability Act. As the Minister's Department is charged with monitoring and overseeing the implementation of the Disability Act, in particular measures in relation to Part 3 and Part 5 dealing with the public sector, I ask him what will be done to address this issue.

This is a serious issue when coupled with the failure of the Government to introduce a personal advocacy service through the Citizens information Board. When legislation was passed it was envisaged that a personal advocate would assist people with disabilities in accessing all public services, not just health services, and acting as their representative in dealing with public bodies if they were unable to do so.

Would the Minister agree that these failures undermine the statutory right of people with disabilities to complain where public bodies fail in their duty to them? I agree with the Ombudsman, and I am sure many people with disabilities, their carers, families would agree, that this situation is "wholly unacceptable". When the Ombudsman uses language as strong as that we should all take note and act to protect vulnerable citizens in their endeavours to secure the services to which they are entitled under the law.

I will be interested to hear what the Minister has to say on this very important issue.

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