Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I will share time with Deputy Sherlock.

I thank the Minister of State for her contribution and I thank the Deputies who tabled this joint motion. I must comment on the way the Minister of State finished. I know she is a formidable person. I like her style and I compliment her on getting the €37.8 million. However, it says a lot about the Government that she had to fight so hard to get it. If the Government was going to prioritise people with disabilities in the way in which it should, she should not need to fight as hard as she did. Fair play to her. She is unique. It is obvious that the Government does not place a priority on disability in the first place if it took that level of fight to get it. I give my best wishes to the new committee that has been established, members of which are here tonight.

As the Minister of State knows, I have spoken about his subject many times since the start of this Dáil. I have probably spoken more about it than any other topic because I have been fighting for people with intellectual disabilities, about which I am passionate. We live in a republic and the best way to show that we live in a republic is by looking after those who are most vulnerable during this pandemic. The simple fact is that those who are being given day services were just let down. I understand residential services were protected, but day services and respite are gone. They lost the will because they were forgotten about.

On numerous occasions I have spoken to the Minister of State about Philip Kelly, who is not a relation and who lives here in Dublin. He is my friend. He is 29 and has Down's syndrome. He used to beg me to come in here and talk to "the boss". At the start it was the then Taoiseach, the Minister, Deputy Varadkar, and then it became the current Taoiseach, Deputy Micheál Martin. Then he met the Minister of State on the bridge by the convention centre and now she is the boss to get him back to his day services. He gets four hours twice a week. After I leave here, I will ring him and talk to him because he is watching now.

I have spoken to many families who are watching tonight to see if the Minister of State can deliver more in next week's budget. That is why this motion is so timely. It is not sustainable for Philip and all the other people who deserve the services. They are thankful for the €10 million and the total of €37.8 million. They need capital funding because their buildings are too small. They need PPE and they need many more buses. They need them now. We live in a republic. They cannot be discriminated against. They are the most vulnerable. They were left at the bottom of the pile and it is not bloody well acceptable. We need to have Covid protections, but we also need to provide services for our most vulnerable and particularly day services.

I do not have much time, but I want to make two more points. I spent some years on the Committee of Public Accounts and was also my party's spokesperson on health. The situation with section 38 and section 39 organisations is not sustainable. The Covid pandemic is a disrupter, but this was not sustainable before the pandemic. All the main organisations are in serious trouble. We need a plan that goes beyond the term of the Minister of State and lasts for a decade. We outsourced all these services for the most vulnerable people in this country to private organisations and now we will need to take them back. What is going on is not sustainable. These organisations are beginning to fall over.

I refer to a newspaper article today. It is not because it was written by a Labour man but because his passion for disabilities is more important to him than being a Labour man. If colleagues read one article tonight, they should read Fergus Finlay's article on St. John of God's in today's Irish Examiner. It is not because his daughter is there; in fairness to him he has been passionate about this for many years. We cannot have €155 million given out in services for 2,709 people. This organisation owns considerable property that we all know about. There are issues with workers which we all know about. After years of giving out secret payments with 11 people getting more than €180,000 a year - to give balance because the State cannot always deal with everything - it has decided that it now wants to throw all the services back on the State. We heard a lot this week about frightening people and this frightens people. The reason they are in that position in the first place is we outsourced it all.

There are two issues. First, the Minister of State needs to have a hell of a week. I congratulate her on the €37.8 million. However, it says an awful lot about the Government that she needed to do what she did. She needs to have one hell of a damn week because these people cannot be let down. We need capital and current funding. Second, all of us need to make a plan for the State to take back control and ownership of disability services for people who are vulnerable.

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