Colm Keaveney (Galway East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The budget failed to restore the housing adaptation grant that he cut. We have led in this area and called for its restoration in our pre-budget submission. There has been no alternative and there is no evidence of one in any line of the proposed budget. Even the mobility grant has been cut by those on the other side of the Chamber, yet the Government launched an announcement last week on the integration of people into the employment market, without any cognisance being taken of the capacity of somebody to get to work. It has singled out the most vulnerable people in society, people with disabilities who have been overlooked in the budget. Much of the infrastructure required by them to lead an independent, equal life and to be brought from the periphery to the centre was dismantled by the Government. The adaptation grant for people with disabilities to make it possible for them get into a shower was cut by the Minister of State. That is his legacy.

The commitment of the Government to mental health services is questionable, to say the least. There has been no mention of mental health services in the budget in the past 48 hours, which is quite telling. There is no mention of disability or mental health services. It goes far in telling us what the Government's priorities are and about its type of recovery - leaving people behind. Its instinct for self-preservation kicks in at the cost of mental health services and the most vulnerable people in society. The health allocation announced yesterday includes no reference to disability or mental health services. That is in sharp contrast to the commitments the Government made prior to 2011.

In terms of mental health serices, we have real cause for concern. Every year since 2011 the Government has broken its commitment to deliver ring-fenced funding of €35 million for the development of a community mental health service, the virtual ward in the community. It has not happened. Last year 500 people died by suicide, yet the Government has consistently cut mental health services. In my home county of Galway there was an underspend of €6 million. Members opposite smirk at me for raising the cause of disability and mental health services. How dare they? They attacked the most vulnerable and the evidence speaks for itself. In every budget since 2011 and again this year the Government has cut the allocation and underspent. It failed to recruit 2,500 staff to ensure the transition from acute mental health settings to the community setting would happen. The crisis is of the Government's making. There is no mention of mental health services in the documentation produced in the past 48 hours on budget 2016. That is an indictment of the Government.

At yesterday's press conference there was an exchange between the Minister, Deputy Leo Varadkar, the Minister of State, Deputy Kathleen Lynch, and Sara Burke which I wish to read. Ms Burke said: "I realise you are kicking to touch a lot on the service plan for details but surely somebody has done the sums ... for example of the €35 million that you have sought but not always gained before, Minister Lynch?" The Minister, Deputy Leo Varadkar, the man of the year, intervened and said: "I don't want to give that yet because it's not decided yet and they are dynamic figures ... we need to actually sit down and work that out." Then the Minister of State, Deputy Kathleen Lynch, interjected to say: "But it's not that it's not done, it is done. It's very obviously done; it's just that [we have not done it yet]." The Minister said: "It's within a range." Ms Burke asked, "Can we get that range?" and if people could be given it that evening. He said they could not and that "We want to make sure they are right." Ms Burke quite frankly asked whether the additional €35 million not spent in 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014 in current expenditure would be spent on mental health services in 2016. The Minister of State jumped in to say, "Yes," that there was a commitment to provide €35 million for mental health services. That was the end of an exchange. The Minister of State's commitment in her final comment is of little comfort to me because she failed to protect the sum of €35 million in 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014.

It is the greatest public health crisis of our generation. More people die by suicide than die on the roads, yet the Minister of State could not give a straight answer. To be fair to the man of the year, he made a greater attempt to be transparent on the status of the €35 million. Members opposite can smirk and might think it is funny, but the lack of progress in filling these posts and the lack of transparency on the applications for them point directly to a failure of political will in disability and mental health services.

The response to a parliamentary question I put recently in this area demonstrates how poor is the practice and the delivery of services in child and adolescent mental health units.

One mental health issue that has emerged under the Government which overlaps with a core group in society has been the failure to deliver mental health care for people who are homeless. We all remember Jonathan Corrie, but do we know the name of any of the six people who have died in the meantime? The Government has successfully managed to normalise the situation because it believes in austerity. Mental health and homelessness have a very complex relationship in the midst of the housing crisis. Despite this, we have seen no budgetary provision for mental health or respite care services in the context of what is happening on the streets. I walked from this Chamber today to the Hibernian Archway and along the way I walked by four homeless people. I have no doubt that they are not voters and, therefore, do not matter because this is a Government run by focus groups, as we could judge from the front page of the Irish Examineryesterday which stated: "A budget for the voter". Mental health and homelessness have a complex, dynamic relationship that seems to have been forgotten by the Government because yesterday's announcement was appalling. It is appalling to think there was not one provision to deal with homelessness, mental health or disability services. That will be the legacy of the Government.

Alongside that failure, there was no provision made for palliative care for a citizen who knew he or she was going to die. Where would such a person go to spend his or her last moments? On what street would he or she choose to die? In truth, this is a question that bothers me. It is also bothering all of the homeless agencies, but, nonetheless, there was no provision made in the budget for respite or palliative care services for homeless people.

I mention housing and homelessness, great social challenges for this country. Labour Party Ministers sat at the Cabinet table for four years with the housing portfolio and simply watched this happen, day by painful day. This crisis has been brewing since 2012, but the then Minister of State with responsibility for housing, Deputy Jan O'Sullivan, did nothing about the issue until that man came in. The Government only finally seemed to notice the problem in our communities and high streets when we stepped over a dead man while walking into work. His name was Mr. Corrie and he was found 100 m from here. The Minister, Deputy Alan Kelly, took it upon himself to solve this crisis and, at first, it seemed that something might be done, as there were significant announcements. We were told that the Minister was kicking down and opening doors, that we were going to have a resolution and that no firing pin would be held in. We were told that the dynamic that would emerge would be unequalled. Of course, the Minister is not alone in his failure to confront this issue. His party leader, the Tánaiste and Minister for Social Protection, has played her own part. Despite being advised to do so by organisations such as Threshold and Focus Ireland and by Fr. Peter McVerry, she stubbornly refused to increase rent supplement limits. The consequences are to be seen in my own home town, where families are sleeping in turf sheds. That is the result of the Government's policy. I apologise if I have broken protocol by displaying a photograph, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle, but it is critically important that we are transparent and close to the truth. The homelessness crisis is not Dublin-centred; it prevails across rural Ireland and is impacting on families. Children are living in a turf shed for a ninth week. That is the legacy of the Government.

Of course, the Simon Community tells us that we are faced with a situation where 93% of the properties for rent are for figures outside the rent supplement cap. On the day this was checked, not one property was available to rent in five of the largest cities in the country. The crisis is quite evident in Dublin and my constituency of Galway East where the Government has abandoned a family to a turf shed. They have been homeless for nine weeks. That is what is happening in this country. Tonight that couple will sleep in a shed and their children will sleep on the floor adjacent to them. They will sleep there for months while voids are boarded up because the local authorities have been starved of the resources to help the most vulnerable.

The budget is final confirmation that the members of the Government have delivered exactly the fabric of what they are - a right-wing Government. It is long overdue that this has been said to them. The damage they have done to society, year after year, with budgets that were independently validated as regressive-----

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