Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Kelleher for affording us the opportunity over the past two days to discuss this important issue. Disability is not just on budget day, but it is all year round. It is a topic that we should discuss on a more regular basis, particularly in order to pursue some of the initiatives the Minister of State just mentioned.

Many of my colleagues have spoken about cuts to services and I also have similar stories. I wish to focus in particular on the delays in the domiciliary care allowance, the hurdles people need to overcome in applying for that allowance, the 63% refusal rate in the first six months of this year and the fact that people who are in very distressing situations with their children are being forced to provide information which in many cases is already available to those making the decisions. There seems to be no recognition that of all the social welfare allowances this is one provided to people in a very difficult situation in dealing with their children. We have spoken to the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Burton, on numerous occasions but our requests seem to be falling on deaf ears. Perhaps the Minister of State might bring to her attention that new arrangements need to be put in place for dealing with domiciliary care in order to speed up the decision time, considering the very difficult home situations of those applying for it.

The very reason the allowance was introduced in the first place should also be considered in the way decisions are dealt with.

I will raise a number of local issues. I have the privilege of coming from County Mayo which has been served by the Western Care Association for over 40 years. This is a voluntary organisation established by parents in Castlebar that now has a county-wide remit to provide education and enterprise services. It does an excellent job alongside the HSE but has suffered significant cuts in recent years. It managed to maintain very strong service provision and an excellent range of enterprise supports until this year. This was the first year when it was not in a position to give training opportunities to those coming through the education process by means of its excellent education centre because the places and funding were not there.

We agree with the Minister of State when he talks about the wish of families that disabled people be treated equally, but when they are not given the opportunities to proceed from second level to third level education, the wheels come off that ambition. In respect of funding, let us start ring-fencing training places that may prepare people for work and funding for organisations like the Irish Association of Supported Employment which provide enterprise, job shadowing and other work initiatives for people with disabilities. If they have that training, many of them will be able to play their full part. Some cannot but those who can will be able to play a full and independent part in society. It is all very well to talk about independent living and dealing with the housing and home care requirement but a job requirement is part of the process and seems to be lost.

The Minister of State referred to a cross-Government approach and different Departments being involved. The difficulty is that this is still happening on a silo-by-silo basis. There is very little co-ordination in this approach. The housing policies of the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government do not necessarily relate to policies of the Department of Education and Science, while the latter Department's policies on ABA and autism education are often not what the Department of Health think they should be. We need somebody to bring all of Government together to have one approach that assists people to live independently where they can and gives support to those who cannot. We need a cross-Government approach to fast track this instead of forcing people to jump through so many hoops to get basic requirements and entitlements.

I do not doubt the commitment of the Minister of State nor that of the Minister of State with responsibility for disability, equality and mental health. The difficulty in the Department is at the top - a difficulty pointed out by the Minister for Education and Science and by many of the Minister of State's colleagues. The commitment of both Ministers of State is getting lost and both of them, especially the Minister of State with responsibility for this area, need to stand up and be very strong for the rights of those they serve in their areas of responsibility.

The Department of Social Protection last year reduced the additional weekly payment that people on disability benefit received for participating in the community employment scheme. This scheme allows them to play a part in the community and gain skills that it is hoped will allow them to move into employment. The additional payment is just €20 per week on top of the disability benefit compared with JobBridge which pays around an additional €50 per week. Why can we not bring it up to the JobBridge level and treat them equally as if they were in JobBridge? There are extra expenses and difficulties involved for those with disabilities. That is a very solid and practical initiative the Government can undertake at minimal expense to send a signal that we are serious about giving an independent future to people who are looking for it. Enterprise Ireland recently launched a range of schemes to encourage different sectors to start up businesses and move into different sectors. An initiative targeting women in business is one example. We should look at an offering something similar to disabled people who want to set up their own businesses. Many organisations have excellent enterprises. The Western Care Association runs Abbey Enterprises which provides services to local multinationals. Many other disabled people have a vision of setting up a business, have the skills to do so and could do so with financial and practical support from Enterprise Ireland or the new local enterprise offices. This would also facilitate independent living.

On a non-budget basis, the Government introduced the heads of the mental capacity Bill to the Select Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality. The committee considered the heads of the Bill and its first recommendation, which was agreed on an all-party basis, was that it should be called the capacity Bill. The committee dealt with the heads of the Bill last April and I have not seen it in the House since. That Bill would bring legislation in the area of disability into the 21st century, and bringing it before the House early next year should be a priority. That would spark the debate about whether we should opt for fully rights-based legislation and the advantages and disadvantages of doing so. People do not fully understand that. If we can use the mental capacity Bill to kick off that discussion, it will do some service not just to the country but ourselves as legislators. I hope we would get the commitment to introduce the Bill early in the next session.

The difficulty for the Government does not lie in manifesto commitments. It made these commitments in full knowledge of the difficulties this country faced. The difficulty lies in the commitments it made in the programme for Government, which were made with full briefing from the Central Bank and the European Central Bank. The Government made various commitments in this area in the programme for Government on which it has attempted to row back this year. It forced people to sleep on the streets to prevent their personal assistant service being cut. Non-budget issues such the mental capacity Bill are being long-fingered. We need a sense of urgency within the Government on the disability issue. If it does that, it has the capacity to deliver much in a relatively short period. The Government's approach could encompass all of Government instead of the disparity and silo-by-silo basis it uses. If it could do that, it would begin to make a difference.

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