Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

With the budget only a couple of hours away, this motion provides a good opportunity for Deputies to highlight the issue of services for people with disabilities. The Fianna Fáil Party has taken a politically cynical and disingenuous approach to this matter given that it was responsible for many of the cuts of recent years. For example, the previous Fianna Fáil led Government reduced expenditure on disability services by 10% in its final two budgets.

The Government amendment "acknowledges that some reductions in disability services have been unavoidable in 2012" and states the "Minister for Health is doing all possible to ensure that as much protection as possible is afforded to the disability sector and the social care area as a whole". This will not give confidence to people with disabilities that it will protect their services.

As Deputy Halligan noted, earlier funding increases for disability services must be viewed in the context of the very low base from which they started. The personal assistant service was first introduced 25 years ago and has been developed in recent years. Between 600,000 and 700,000 people with disabilities rely on disability services to help them get up in the morning, eat, dress, go to work and play a role in society. They need to hear from the Government that funding for their services will be protected in this and future budgets. Without such an assurance, they will experience stress and anxiety as they worry every day about where the next cut will come from and whether their personal assistant hours will be reduced. Cuts in funding for people with disability and other vulnerable persons should be stopped. This funding must be ring-fenced and guaranteed.

The Government must ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Ratification is part and parcel of the disability strategy. I learned with sadness today that the US Senate decided not to ratify the convention yesterday, which was a bad day for people with disability in the United States.

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