Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour) | Oireachtas source

To give another view from County Tipperary.

On behalf of the Labour Party, I want to speak in favour of the motion. I thank my colleagues for tabling it. I have had many conversations with the Minister of State about disability issues. Some of his family are very good neighbours of mine and I know that he is focused on his job and how passionate he is about it. As I only have a few minutes, I quickly want to raise a number of issues.

My colleague and a former Member of the House who did a very good job in this area, Kathleen Lynch, spearheaded the passage of the Assisted Decision Making (Capacity) Act 2015, legislation which had been designed to bring Ireland out of the dark ages in how we treated some of the most vulnerable in society, namely, people with disabilities. We are fully committed to a massive overhaul of the services provided for them and knocking down as many barriers as possible. Included in that law was the provision of a decision support service, the establishment of which we needed to see as a matter of urgency.

We also have a duty to acknowledge and urgently address the financial burden medical care presents for people with disabilities. The motion is correct in its specific detail on this issue. While there has been an improvement in recent years in the awarding of discretionary medical cards, there is more work to be done. If a person with a chronic illness is faced with circumstances which include paying the full cost of drugs, inpatient hospital charges and for multiple GP visits, medical devices and so on, one can understand he or she is in a very challenging position.

I want to focus, in particular, on the issue of employment. Many people with disabilities, unfortunately, do not find the employment they deserve. I give to the Minister of State the example of a very good friend of mine whom he knows and about whom I have spoken in the House before. His name is Mr. Stephen Cluskey whom I got to know when I was Minister of State at the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport. We rolled out a load of innovative campaigns, apps and websites on accessible transport. Stephen is wheelchair-bound but a very innovative young man. He is somebody who wants to work. Last year he brought a number of people with spinal injuries to the audiovisual room to talk about the volume of people who would not or could not take up employment because of their fear of losing their medical card. Obviously, many of them have very serious injuries and their medical condition involves incurring huge costs. The risk in taking up employment is so high that many are not willing to take it. If they were in a position where their medical card was secure - if there was one issue I would ask the Minister of State to look at, it would be this one - it would be cost-neutral to the Exchequer. I gave Mr. Cluskey a commitment that I would raise the issue which I have raised before. The people who find themselves in similar circumstances and people like him deserve a chance and not to face the risk of losing their medical card.

I also bring to the Minister of State's attention Part 5 of the Disability Act 2005 which deals with the commitment that 3% of the employees of public bodies will be people with disabilities. The Act states there will be a yearly report on this provision. I ask the Minister of State to publish it. I recently dealt in my county with the case of a young lady with a mild disability. She is a very capable young lady. I actually had to go and ask various organisations to find her unpaid employment which eventually a very good public organisation provided. However, I am really anxious that the Minister of State check to see that public bodies are reaching their quotas in that respect. It is a modest amount and certainly a level that can be met.

The area of assistive technologies is one in which the Minister of State could be innovative and it would not cost the Exchequer a huge amount of money. It could involve a combination of various subsidies and tax breaks. Technology really helps people with disabilities. There is a range of new technologies which we should be embracing to help them. I encourage the Minister of State to talk to the Minister for Finance. I have some ideas about which I can talk to the Minister of State personally as I come from a technology background. In some cases, the technologies are expensive, while in others, they are not, but we should be able to assist people with disabilities by facilitating their use in their everyday lives.

I have met HIQA, as has the Minister of State. It is not resourced to the required level. We also have issues with Tusla. We know that the issues raised in the report on foster children need to be addressed in working with the HSE. I know that Tusla is not exactly within the Minister of State's remit, but these issues certainly need to be addressed.

The provision of transport is a passion of mine considering that I had a role in the relevant Department. There are still real issues in the bus fleet. Approximately 70% of Bus Éireann's fleet has lower carriage floors. Now that we have adopted the convention, there is a requirement for private bus operators to provide for accessibility. They have no choice in that regard. Will the Minister of State ensure his colleague in the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport will make sure it happens? There is a capital outlay involved, but this requirement must be met in all State contracting and tendering processes. It is something we should be dialling and of which we should be reminding people. It is absolutely wrong that anybody with a disability should have to make a commitment in making his or her travel plans 24 hours in advance. Working through the National Transport Authority, we need to ensure that will be changed.

9 o’clock

I will move to the last couple of issues I wish to raise. I am sorry for jumping from issue to issue but I have limited time. Neurological waiting lists are an absolute scandal. I have had serious difficulties with them in dealing with so many people. I will tell the Minister of State a story about issues of inappropriate settings. We know that more than 1,000 people are in nursing homes who should not be there at all. I was dealing with a very sad case recently of a young man in a wheelchair who was in a nursing home. He did not want to be there but there was no other appropriate setting for him. That man is no longer with us. He was a very young man who took his own life because of the setting in which he was left. He was from a town the Minister of State and I both know very well. This shows the issues we have with people under the age of 65 being left in nursing homes or congregated settings. I know we must be realistic about this, but these are real issues that have longer-term consequences for the people involved and their families. I ask the Minister of State to consider a plan. To be fair to him, I do not think he will be able to deal with this in the term of office he has left. I echo some of the previous speakers' comments. We need a realistic plan for dealing with these thousands of people who are in such inappropriate settings, whether nursing homes or congregated settings. It is not good enough in 2018, in a country such as Ireland, that they are left in those settings, which are inappropriate for them.

See this speech in context