Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)

I am delighted this opportunity has been provided in the Dáil to have a debate on this issue. We had a debate on this issue in the Seanad recently and the debate there, while not coming down on one or other side of the issue of that House, was quite exceptional. It was wide-ranging, inspirational, to a great extent, and showed the value of having a structure that allowed for a more free-flowing debate. In terms of statements on specific areas, perhaps on Dáil reform, we should examine how debates work there because it most definitely was a better type of debate, more interventionist and I found it far more satisfactory.

I will inform the House on the areas in which we will develop the national disability strategy and ultimately strive to improve the quality of life of people with disabilities in the coming years, even in the face of the financial restrictions in which we find ourselves. I can also assure everyone, however, that I see this session as an important sounding board, as I know that Deputies will reflect issues which have been raised with them by constituents all over the country. I can assure all speakers on the matter that I will be take on board the salient points they make and consider them in the context of the development of the implementation plan for the national disability strategy, which was committed to in the programme for Government. I intend to take every opportunity that arises to raise both parliamentary and public awareness of disability and its effects on those with a disability and on their families.

This is particularly important in light of the findings of the report of the National Disability Authority on a survey of attitudes to disability which it carried out on behalf of the Government and which I launched recently. The survey was taken by the NDA in 2011 and, unfortunately, it showed that, since the previous survey carried out in 2006, overall the public's attitude to people with disabilities has hardened across a range of settings, including the workplace, schools and the community. To give one brief example, the percentage of people who said they would object if a child with intellectual disability or autism was in the same class as their child went up from 8% in 2006 to 21% in 2011. Overall, 40% of respondents in the latest survey stated that they were opposed to educating children with intellectual disabilities in mainstream settings. These findings are a concern when Government policy stresses the importance of educating children with disabilities in mainstream settings, unless it is harmful to the child or to other children. I will examine further the full set of results from the NDA's survey and how we might address them in the overall context of developing the national disability strategy.

The strategy was launched as far back as September 2004 and there is no doubt much has been achieved arising both from legislation such as the Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs, EPSEN, and Citizens Information Acts and from the sectoral plans which were produced and progressed around the six functions of health, social protection, employment, transport, environment and communications. It is also true to say that considerable resources have been expended in the intervening years. Rather than looking back and simply listing achievements to date, I want to put greater emphasis in this session on progressing the strategy in the immediate future and on getting the maximum return on the resources we have at our disposal.

When the Government came into office, we felt the strategy needed to be revitalised and refocused. That is why I established a new implementation group for the strategyto develop an implementation plan and to carry it out over the lifetime of this Government. I am chairing the group and it has representatives from the relevant Departments, the NDA and from organisations, many of which are service providers, which are key players in the sector, namely, Inclusion Ireland, Mental Health Reform, the National Federation of Voluntary Bodies, the National Service Users Executive, the Not for Profit Business Association and the Disability Federation of Ireland. In addition to these, I have added new members to the group who I believe are crucial to development of the strategy. We have included for the first time, the County and City Managers' Association because local authorities are vital at community level and they are the decision makers. For example, it is they who make decisions on necessities such as public lighting, footpaths, public seating, which bus routes will be used and so on. Second, I appointed a number of individuals to the group to represent the actual experience of living with disabilities. They will lay out the issues with which they have to deal and stress the practicalities which should be addressed by the strategy to improve their everyday lives. Their input will be crucial to the plan. Internationally, there is a widely used disability motto, "nothing about us, without us". It is not used here so much but it is a great motto and one to which we should keep returning. In this approach we need to ask people with disabilities how they want to spend their day and we need to do as much as possible to ensure they can do so as independently as they wish. In achieving this and in developing our national disability strategy, we must strive to achieve the maximum possible with the level of resources available, and those resources are considerable.

A crucial initiative in this regard is the Review of the Efficiency and Effectiveness of Disability Services in Ireland, more commonly known as the value for money review, which is being undertaken. This in-depth review of disability services will assess how well current services for people with disabilities meet their objectives and support the future planning and development of services. A steering group is overseeing the review. It is chaired by an independent chairperson, Mr. Laurence Crowley, and has two other independent members as well as members drawn from the disability sector, the Department of Health, the Department of Finance and the HSE. The disability services were selected for review in consideration of the significant annual expenditure on the programme We should not forget that those resources have been put in place by successive Governments. This is not something we are now suddenly addressing, but a continuum. The people who were in this job before me were as concerned about how the services were delivered and were extraordinarily effective in securing resources and putting in place services. Other considerations in the section of disability services for review are the size of the population directly affected by the services and the scope and nature of services provided. Disability services infrastructure has developed in an ad hoc way over many years and systems of allocation of resources and accountability have evolved differently in the former health board regions. Different organisation types have also followed different development paths. Sometimes when I say that, and say it in different ways, I think the organisations, the service providers, take it as a form of criticism, which it is not. These organisations, the service providers, whether small or large, provided a service to people with disabilities at a time when the State did not; although they were funded by the State but for a long time they very much depended on charitable donations as well. We owe a debt of gratitude to those people which should be acknowledged publicly. Concerns were expressed regarding the number of agencies providing disability services, the likelihood that inefficiencies had crept into the system, the potential for geographical or sectoral inequities in resource allocation and service provision, and the potential for duplication of costs. Other issues of concern included administrative costs, management structures, and non-pay expenditure on research, advertising, profile-building and infrastructure. All of these concerns are being addressed. The review offered an opportunity to take stock of the entire system and, if warranted, to make recommendations for policy changes or reform, with the aim of ensuring the system would meet the needs of service users into the future in the most efficient and effective way possible. The scope of the review included a commitment to define and describe the objectives of disability services, to consider the extent to which existing policies are consistent with delivery of these objectives, to assess whether current policies and investments arising from those policies are sustainable in the context of the changing economic climate and to propose the policy changes, if any, needed to ensure that overall objectives are delivered.

While the VFM review will concentrate on efficiency and effectiveness, a separate expert reference group on disability policy was established specifically to examine existing disability policy and determine whether it needs to be changed to meet better the expectations and objectives of people with disabilities. As part of this review, a public consultation process on existing disability services was undertaken, which confirmed that people with disabilities and their families, more than anything else, are seeking more choice in the services they receive and more control over how they access them. The expert reference group report proposes a significant reframing of disability services, with a move to individualised supports and the introduction of individualised budgeting for people with disabilities in order to put more choice and control directly in their hands. The proposals in the expert group report and the findings from the public consultation will be considered shortly by the steering group, which will hold its final meeting in the near future to sign off on the report. I expect to publish the review in the first half of the coming year, with the Government's approval.

HSE-funded service provision is moving towards a community-based and inclusive model rather than one that is institutional and segregated. The focus in the next few years will be less on increasing the level of service delivered by the voluntary sector and more on improving the existing service for people with disabilities through tailoring the service to their needs and supporting them in participating fully in economic and social life, with access to a range of high quality supports and services to enhance their quality of life. At the moment, service users have little choice or control over the service that is supplied to them.

In addition to the individualised budgets proposed by the policy review, a number of other aspects of independent living will be central to the development of the national disability strategy. With regard to accommodation, the HSE published a report in June 2011 proposing a new model of support in the community for those in congregated settings, which are defined as settings in which ten or more people with disabilities live. The report proposes a seven-year phased closure of congregated settings, with individuals actively supported in living full, inclusive lives at the heart of the family, community and society. The broader overall issue of housing will be addressed by the National Housing Strategy for People with a Disability 2011-2016, which sets out a framework for the delivery of housing to people with disabilities through mainstream housing policy. This will be achieved by directing the efforts of housing authorities and the HSE towards supporting people with a disability in living independently in their own homes so they do not have to move into residential care. A suite of inter-agency protocols has been developed to support more efficient co-operation between the HSE and housing authorities. A planning group is working on the housing strategy and will identify sustainable funding mechanisms.

Another issue to do with independence which will be addressed by the national disability strategy is that of employment and training opportunities. There is a wide range of supports for people with disabilities and for employers, including the supported employment programme, the disability allowance disregard, the wage subsidy scheme, the employee retention grant scheme and the workplace equipment adaptation grant. This is an area in which there are many challenges for people with disabilities. One new scheme that will be introduced in the near future by the Department of Social Protection under the national disability strategy will mark a further important development of the range of supports available to people with disabilities. The scheme, which is called the partial capacity benefit scheme, will allow people with disabilities who are assessed as having restricted employment capacity to avail of employment opportunities while continuing to receive an income support payment. The scheme recognises that the current structure of the welfare system, which categorises people as being either fit or unfit to work, does not reflect the reality for many existing welfare customers. The scheme will be open to people who are in receipt of invalidity pension or who have been in receipt of illness benefit for a minimum of six months, and participation will be voluntary.

The ongoing integration of the employment services and community services divisions of FÁS into the Department of Social Protection is an important step away from a passive model of income support and towards a proactive model under which all people of working age, including people with disabilities, are given the support they need to find employment or to develop the skills and aptitudes required to progress towards employment by undertaking appropriate education, training or work experience. People with disabilities may call in to a FÁS employment service office to meet with an employment service officer who will provide them with full information, advice and guidance about training and employment. Such an approach not only makes economic sense but also allows services to be tailored to meet the individual needs of each person and to respect and enhance their dignity as individuals.

Another key area to be addressed with regard to independent living is capacity. The Government's legislative programme, announced in January, indicates that a mental capacity Bill will be published in this Dáil session. The Bill will reform the law in respect of adults who are vulnerable in the sense that they may lack some or all capacity to make important decisions for themselves. It will modernise the law on capacity, which is currently contained, for the most part, in legislation dating back to the nineteenth century, and will bring Irish capacity legislation into line with current thinking and modern legislative frameworks worldwide. The main proposals in the Bill are to replace the outdated adult ward-of-court system with a new statutory framework governing decision-making on behalf of persons who lack capacity. It will change existing law on capacity, shifting from the current all-or-nothing approach to a flexible, functional one whereby capacity is assessed on an issue and time specific basis.

I will finish there and take up certain issues later if that is what the Chairman wishes.

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