Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State. It is great to see her here. I am also a member of the Joint Committee on Disability Matters and I know how hard everyone works there. It is time for action and this is a call for action. Action is highlighted in the committee's pre-budget submission for budget 2022. The submission calls for the programme for Government commitments that oblige action for inclusion to be fulfilled such that the concerns and needs of people are addressed in a meaningful way and for disability funding to be aligned with the UNCRPD.

We all know this is about people with disability and they have to be living their best lives. This is about inclusion for people with disabilities, which can only be truly achieved through adequate funding being allocated in the national budget for the various sectors relevant to the realisation of the rights of people with disabilities under the UNCRPD. This is crucial because for centuries people with disabilities, particularly those with intellectual disabilities and those with mental health problems, have been institutionalised and segregated from mainstream society. In Ireland the rate of poverty and social exclusion for people with disabilities is one of the highest in the EU at more than 38%. We also have one of the lowest employment rates of people with disabilities in Europe. I know that is a concern for the Minister of State and that is worrying. We must meaningfully address the realisation of the rights of people with disabilities under the UNCRPD, as committed to in the programme for Government.

When I take clinics in my office in County Carlow, I am reminded of the barriers before people living with disabilities. Those with disabilities who are incontinent face staggering charges for their bins. A lady rang me about this recently and it is a huge issue because these people are in poverty. That is something we need to address. In the committee this morning we heard witnesses discuss the limitation of disability service to provide for chronic illnesses. An example that was highlighted is the lack of public toilets. These are barriers to people that seem to be simple to fix so we need to fix them.

The motion calls for a step change across all sectors of society, from a medical model of disability to a social and rights-based model of care, which ensures the inclusion of all groups of people with disabilities across our communities. My biggest concern, which is shared by all members of the committee, is the rate of poverty and social exclusion for people with disabilities in Ireland, which is one of the highest in the EU. The level of unmet need in the disability sector must be addressed and the disability capacity review must be published.

I want to talk about some other issues. I have the following concerns arising from both my work in the committee and my work in Carlow-Kilkenny. I want to thank the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, as we will hopefully get our building for the Holy Angels day care centre. I have been at meetings about the design of that recently but there are issues with it. Even though we have the site and it is in the capital plan, we are going on plans from 2017. My concern, which I have highlighted to the Minister of State, is that it is nearly six years later. I am concerned that we are not taking into account the expansion of services that is occurring in Carlow and in other counties such as Kilkenny. From speaking with those in the different services I know that resources are needed. Children are still facing huge barriers in accessing treatments and support and I ask the Minister of State to look at that. I know about the funding that is being put in and I understand that but there are a still a lot of concerns among parents who I am working with.

Another barrier is housing. I have constantly said that we need to talk about what is being built in Ireland and that we need to address the issue that we are building units that only serve one type of family. Allowing those with disabilities to live independently must be a core priority. I was delighted to attend the opening of the Kilkenny County Council housing project in Castlecomer last month with the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Darragh O’Brien. This is a development in rural Kilkenny that has one-bedroom units. This is unusual for county towns and it is a sign of how we need to build more diverse units for all of us. That has to be contained in Housing for All. We need to build homes that are adapted to people with disabilities. For example, wet rooms are so important, as are downstairs bathrooms. In the long term we will save the Government money by doing that because these units will have to be built anyway. I would also like to see more priority given to families with children and adults with disabilities on the housing lists in local authorities.

Carlow has a population of 56,932, of 14% is living with at least one disability. That is why I have been working with Carlow County Council to ensure that we provide more purpose-built housing for those with disability and to ensure that we make the public aware of the disability grants available to them to remodel their existing homes. That is hugely important information. We have to get the information out to people and families. If we have more campaigns like that then people will learn from them. People with disabilities are more than twice as likely to report discrimination in housing and are over 1.6 times more likely to live in poor conditions. These are important considerations when we look at providing good homes.

Respite is another huge issue for me and I know the Minister of State is doing her best. We need to be positive on this because we need to make change. Another person who contacted me recently said she was entitled to free travel, which she said was great except that there is no public transport link around County Carlow. She said that there are public buses and trains to major cities but nothing internal. We received the great news that Carlow is getting its own town bus service and that is so important but we need to make sure there is other transport in place. When you are in rural Ireland you have to have a car to get around the county and reach services so we need to look at that. I want to highlight these issues because I know we will work on them together. I mention medical cards, which are a nightmare for me. People with disabilities and people who need medical cards should automatically get them. I ask that we would set up a team or a committee to address these issues.

I want to mention a sad case which a lady in Carlow contacted me about. There was an horrific accident about a year and a half ago and this lady’s daughter was left paralysed from the chest down and so she is now in a wheelchair. She told me that when she goes to bring her daughter out for a walk, particularly around her housing estate, she is afraid that her daughter will fall out of the wheelchair because of the condition of the footpath. We cannot allow this to happen anymore. We have to make sure that our footpaths and roads are safe for our wheelchair users and for those who are vision impaired. That was her biggest concern. There is one thing about this case that I am annoyed and tormented over and I have made an appeal on it twice. The mother has applied for carer’s allowance for her daughter twice and has been refused twice. Her daughter needs 24-hour care. She is a great mother and she has a beautiful daughter and yet she has been refused carer’s allowance. You could not make it up. I am going to appeal it again because I cannot believe it. It is so hard to sort out nursing and all the issues. We need to get all these issues sorted because we need to give the most vulnerable people in our society more support. We need to try to be there for them more. I have gone to the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, about the above case and I know she will come back to me because she always does so. I have to give her credit where it is deserved.

Another case I am working on involves children with epilepsy, including students sitting their leaving certificate who have seizures and who cannot properly sit the exams. They are essentially excluded from the CAO process. These seizures can be triggered by stress, tiredness and irregular eating patterns, all of which go hand-in-hand with the leaving certificate as we know. There was a mechanism for students who contracted Covid to resit their exams but there is no such mechanism for students with epilepsy. These are simple barriers but when we have these policies in place all we need to do is change them. I ask that we change these policies.

Another issue I want to talk about is carers. I am working on a case today in which a chap has to come home from hospital and we cannot get a home care package in place for him because we do not have enough carers. I know that funding is there but that we are finding it hard to get staff. However, my understanding is that the recruitment process is beginning to bear fruit, which I am delighted with. However, the decision of the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment to exclude home carers from the critical skills exemption to the non-EEA employment permit system was not helpful. It means that we are struggling to get these staff so I would like to ask that this be looked at.

There are so many things I need to highlight because I work on them every day, as all of us Deputies and Senators do. I work with the Minister, Deputy O’Gorman, and the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, on all of these matters.

Another issue that have I been working with many people on is personal assistance and individual choice about which aspect of social, economic and political life to participate in. This is something that has been raised with me recently. We need to make sure that we give people that choice. I see how important personal assistants are for disabled people and how this has to be valued. On personal assistant services, Article 19 would ratify the right of disabled people to live in the community and have a right to access the services that would allow them.

It is so important that we make sure that we do what we can to work with all the different disability services because it is about communication. It is about everybody working together because sometimes that does not happen. Since both Deputies Rabbitte and O'Gorman have become Ministers, they have worked hard. I thank them for that. However, we have a lot more work to do.

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