John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

For the DART.

I want to remember, first, my late friend and colleague, Mr. John Doyle, who passed away last November. John, like so many with disabilities, had been pushing and campaigning for this day for so many years. It is a real pity he is not with us to see his dream become a reality.

Signing the convention is one matter but enacting rights through legislation is critical. In 1955, Rosa Parks refused to be told to sit at the back of a bus. Here, in this State, persons with disabilities find it nearly impossible to get on the bus or, for that matter, any other public transport in the first place. I commend a constituent of mine, Mr. Pádraic Moran, for exposing the difficulties persons with disabilities face every day in trying to access public transport. Pádraic has done that in the face of fierce opposition by Irish Rail in trying to censor and silence him. I salute Pádraic in everything he does. I also salute two other constituents, Margaret and Ann Kennedy, who have pushed day in, day out, on this issue.

People with disabilities are treated as second-class citizens by this and successive Governments. The mobility allowance and the motorised transport grant were both abolished in 2013 and there is still, to this day, no replacement scheme in place.

In January, the ESRI published a major study on deprivation between 2004 and 2015. The report finds one quarter of families headed by a person with a disability were persistently deprived. These rates are 10% higher than in ten similar EU states. The Government presides over this scandalous discrimination through cuts and underfunding in services right across the board.

Persons with disabilities are no longer prepared to be second-class citizens. They are now in the driving seat of the bus to which I referred. That is down to people like Senator John Dolan, DFI and the other organisations which have pushed this important issue forward over the last 11 years. My own colleague, Deputy Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin, has also pushed this. The Minister of State must now make those rights a reality by enacting the necessary legislation to end the discrimination which all of our disabled citizens face every day.

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