Derek Nolan (Galway West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

In common with Deputy Buttimer, I am delighted to have an opportunity to speak on this topic. It is one that is debated regularly in the House and rightly so, because it certainly is extremely important and has an impact on many people's lives. I revert a little to a point made by the Minister of State, which is that when Members talk about people with disabilities, they do so as though they were discussing a country or a generic group of people who all have the same wants, needs, desires, abilities and so on. However, Members actually are discussing a collection of individuals, each with vastly different experiences of life and with different needs. This was brought home to me when I got into this job, in which one meets so many different people from many different walks of life. As Deputy Buttimer observed, the Opposition Members are not alone in meeting people in this country. At one end of the scale, one could have children with profound and severe intellectual and physical disabilities who will spend most of their lives in bed, with a few hours per day out of bed, and who probably will never leave their houses for their entire lives. At the other end of the scale, one may meet another person with a disability with whom one will engage and talk without ever knowing. In other words, the breadth of individuals under discussion is extremely wide. This is the reason I thought the suggestion by Deputy Ross that there should be a Senator for the disabled was such a stupid thing to say. I am sorry to say it in that way but each Member of this House and all Members of the Seanad should be representing people with disabilities and to suggest that one person could represent such a vast array of individuals or that it would be one person's job to be the spokesperson is a nonsense. It betrays a lack of understanding of the degrees and variance of those who have disabilities in this country. Moreover, this does not simply pertain to the individuals themselves. They have family members, carers, brothers, sisters and children and this involves so many different families with such widely differing circumstances that Members really must have a grown-up and informed discourse when discussing the issue of disabilities.

As for the question of resources and so on, Members opposite asked whether it was fair that people with disabilities should be obliged to suffer or whether it was fair that people should want for this or that. No, it is not fair. No Member on this side of the House wants that or considers it to be fair that the country should be on its knees or that there should be a financial crisis. However, they are trying to fix it and to do their best to sort it out. I never tell anyone that the state the country is in at present is fair or right because it is totally unfair. Moreover, people here must pay and are paying for an extremely unfair situation. However, just because something is unfair does not mean one can simply wish it away. One must deal with it and do one's best and try to protect people as best as one can.

I wish to discuss the concept of individuality a little, as individuality links to choice and choice leads to freedom. This is the subject about which Members should be talking and in fairness to the Minister of State - all credit to her - it is what she has spoken about from the first day since she came into this job, that is, empowering people to live the lives they wish to lead and perceiving them as individuals and as people with different wants and different needs. I remember the Minister of State travelling to Galway to attend an Ability West annual general meeting, at which she spoke about money people might have and the purposes for which they might use it. She referred to little things, such as how people might use it to go to the park for the day or to the cinema or to have a cup of coffee in town. These are the kinds of real activities people do in their lives about which Members should be discussing. If they talk in the abstract about services and so on, they should bear in mind that people with disabilities have lives, wants, needs and aspirations, which is what Members should be servicing. I like the approach towards which the State is moving of person-centred funding, in which the family or the person can decide what he or she wishes. That is what it is all about and when this is done, it will change completely the manner in which such services are provided because when one has choices, one is giving people the option to decide they do not want this or are not happy with that service. They will have the freedom to express their unhappiness with particular services or the manner in which they were treated or the accommodation they were provided and so on. Moreover, standards will improve when people are being reacted to and listened to as individuals. This approach also will solve another major problem, which again has been pointed out by the Minister of State, namely, the scattered approach wherein one can have excellent facilities in some areas but not in others. However, when people have choice and the ability to pick, the services will come to those people because funding will be available to provide it and it will sort out, once and for all, that institutional-centred approach that is in place at present. I acknowledge that getting there is a long way off and one thing I have learned in politics is that change takes time and is slow. One must dismantle what is there at present and put in place a new system, while not hurting those involved in the meantime while going through that transition.

The service providers with whom I deal in Galway on a regular basis include the Brothers of Charity services, based in Renmore but with facilities throughout the county, and Ability West, which does excellent work in community homes and is based in Salthill. While the motion states the disability sectors were targeted, I will provide an example of how I believe the disability sector was protected. I know of and can vouch specifically for the work of the Minister of State in reducing the proposed budget cut for disabilities this year to 1.2%. This was done having listened to service providers in Galway when the Minister of State visited them and having listened to the troubles they were in, the difficulties they faced and so on. This year, the service providers have told me that while it will be challenging, it is something they can manage. This is the kind of engagement that is needed and on which the Minister of State must be commended.

However, this movement towards individuality will not be done easily and will require a change in structures. When one is reducing a budget to try to change a structure or making something more efficient or taking money from an area to provide it somewhere else, it is not necessarily a cut. Reform is not always a cut, but people can play on that type of budget change.

This is a very important topic. I commend the Minister on her work. Her speech detailed the actions that have been taken, the resources that have been allocated and some of the positive steps that have been taken.

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