Violet-Anne Wynne (Clare, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State announced €10 million for disability services. That is shameful, as it falls well short of the money required to properly fund and resource the sector. Since the election I have been contacted by several people who are experiencing serious issues in access to housing, healthcare and disability services. It has been truly appalling.

Just last week, I again raised the issue of transportation for service users with the Minister for Transport. These issues cannot be allowed to continue and Covid-19 must not be used as an excuse for services to be reduced and curtailed beyond recognition. We have many exceptional groups throughout our State that work closely with people with disabilities to further their call for equal rights. One particular group in my home county of Clare is the Clare Leader Forum. I commend it on the great work it has been doing for many years now, battling away without adequate funding for the sector. I also commend the work of family carers, which they continue to put in, day in day out, particularly during Covid-19 without the respite services being available to them. These people are the backbone of our care system.

The UNCRPD is an important, key convention that Ireland ratified in 2018 after 11 long, frustrating years. It is very welcome that we finally now have a committee to oversee the implementation of the convention of which I am a member. It is a step in the right direction but we need to ensure that there are no further delays in fully implementing this convention and in ratifying also the optional protocol. We can all agree that people with disabilities have waited long enough. When will the committee sit?

The cross-party support for this motion shows just how important this issue really is.

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