Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

This year, 2020, has been a particularly challenging time for people with disabilities and their families. Many people have had their usual daily regimes changed, causing much distress. It is important to acknowledge the remarkable strength families have shown in recent months.

With access to services limited people were under pressure to adjust. The resolve shown cannot be underestimated and I want to thank everyone for their resilience and managing the challenge of living with Covid-19.

Disability service providers have also played an important role, demonstrating great leadership and flexibility in responding to the needs of people with disabilities. I have secured an unprecedented investment of €100 million of new developments in budget 2021 and a further €23 million for initiatives commenced in 2020. That means that the disability budget for 2021 now stands at €2.22 billion, which demonstrates this Government's commitment to supporting people with disabilities. This funding will deliver a comprehensive package of measures to strengthen and enhance services and support for people with disabilities therefore giving them greater choice of dependency and control. The increased investment in 2021 enables us to build on the success of existing programmes and policies such as progressing disability services for children, the person-centered model of day services provision under new directions, and the Time to Move on From Congregated Settings report.

The further development of children's disability service is a key focus for this Government. In addition to the €7.8 million announced in September to address the assessment of need backlog, we will provide 100 additional posts for children's therapeutic services next year. These additional posts in speech and language, occupational therapy, psychology and physiotherapy will provide more timely access to therapeutic interventions. I will also continue to push the HSE to recall all such therapists to their primary roles, instead of being used for contact tracing and swabbing.

One of my priorities since taking office has been to ensure that disability services curtailed as a result of Covid-19 would reopen and remain open under the framework for living with Covid-19. While Covid-19 will continue to impact the level of capacity available to safely provide services, I am pleased to have secured funding to support the resumption of day services. This will maintain the extra day of service provided recently to the 14,000 people who whose service was reduced.

Budget 2021 also ensures that funding is in place to enable approximately 1,700 young adults leaving school or rehabilitative training in the coming year. They will be given access and supports and services to meet their needs at one of the most crucial transition points of their lives.

Respite is a crucial support for families, and the Government is committed to creating additional respite places. By strengthening respite capacity we can better respond to the needs of families across the country. I have focused on additional overnight places, particularly for children, as well as an alternative model of respite such as day respite camps and clubs, which will allow greater variety of choice for people with disabilities.

Funding will also be provided to expand and enhance supports for people living in their own communities, including the provision of additional personal assistance hours to support people to live self-directed lives. We will also build on the €2.5 million funding secured last month to extend the number of intensive in-home packages for people who have high support needs. This allows people to remain in their own communities which is key. I have increased the investment in specialist residential support to support people with more complex needs.

Budget 2021 provides funding for an increased number of residential placements on a planned basis, as well as a response to more urgent case care situations. Funding is also allocated for 2021 to address the inappropriate placements of young people with disabilities in nursing homes, and in line with the programme for Government and our policy, Time to Move on From Congregated Settings, we will continue with successful programme of decongregating next year. There is also additional funding to provide more community-based housing to enable people to move to homes in the community with the necessary support, and I am particularly pleased to announce today that I am planning to set up a new disability integration fund in 2021. The aim is to help provide funding for the community-based initiatives around the country which demonstrates integration of people with disabilities.

Finally, I am delighted to confirm that an additional injection of €20 million in a once-off funding is made available in 2020 for disability voluntary service providers to support the agenda of transforming lives reform programme.

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