Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

There is a right to fully take part in the workplace on an equal basis but it is still the case that only 31% of people with disabilities of working age are in employment. The rights have to be resourced by the Government. A big part of that is the question of overturning the cuts that were implemented over the course of the crisis. Some of the most shameful acts done by any Government in history of the State are those done by the last Fine Gael-Labour Government. There are too many to list but some of them were as follows: a 9.4% cut in disability services between 2008 and 2015; the drastic decline in disposable income for those with disabilities of almost 10% between 2010 and 2015; and the disability allowance remaining at a very low level. The consequence is 132,000 people with disabilities living in consistent poverty, a rate of 22%, rising from 14% over just five years.

We need to see action. We need to see legislative action and the implementation and full commencement of the Act in regard to what are currently termed wards of court. We need action on the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act and the full passage of the Disability (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill. We need to see an advisory committee which is representative of all persons with disability and comprises a majority of persons with disability to support the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission in monitoring the UNCRPD. We need to see a legislative timetable because waiting 11 years for this is too long and people do not want to have to wait 11 years for everything else that is meant to be coming down the line.

Fundamentally, as a socialist, I think of the treatment of disabled people as falling into the wider context of how capitalism operates. It is an economic system based on the prioritisation of profit above everything else. It is not a system that is inclusive of minority communities with particular needs. We need a society where decisions are not based on profit but, instead, where people's needs, in all the different ways that different people have different needs, come to the fore.

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