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

I thank my colleague Deputy Tully for sharing her time. We talk about disability services all the time. The budget is about all about services with day services and respite services. I wish we could talk more about rights and the human rights of human people.

I could raise a number of issues tonight but I will focus on the transfer of the disability portfolio. It seemed very exciting and progressive for disability to be named as part of a Department’s functions when this Dáil was formed in 2020. It should have been a step in the right direction to move away from the medical model which views and treats people with disabilities as sick people towards a more social or human rights based model. The transfer has been as clear as mud in many respects, especially in relation to the Department of Health, which is disappointing.

Since this was announced, I have sought timelines and details about the functions that will be transferred and what services will remain in the Department of Health. I asked the Taoiseach if his oversight is required considering how aimless the transfer has been over the last two years. It would be quite a big undertaking to oversee. The Minister responded that it is the intention that responsibility for the provision of the services will remain within the HSE following the transfer. He said that his Department will continue to deliver mainstream services for people with disabilities. Retaining the services within the HSE mitigates the risk of disruption to service delivery for service users and maintains current pathways to provide mainstream community health services and primary care therapies to all disability service users.

I wish that the Minister was present here and I hope he hears what has been said week-in, week-out by the witnesses who attended the disability matters committee because that would rip that statement to shreds. I am confused by his remark that he is trying to mitigate disruption to services by retaining the services in the HSE. For the overwhelming majority of disabled people these services are already very much disrupted, inconsistent and out of reach and are often at the end of a three-year waiting list. If the €2.2 billion disability budget is in effect going to stay in the Department of Health it is confusing what exactly is being transferred. Take the personal assistance hours, which is a social model version of home help, which is far more empowering, progressive and aligned with the UNCRPD. If the Department of Health is going to retain the funding for these services, which, again, are not health services, how is the paternalistic charity approach to disabled people’s rights and quality of life ever going to change?

The Minister of State announced recently that the numbers of children waiting on assessment of needs had dropped from 6,000 to 600. However, last week, we heard that they were back up to 4,000. There is some confusion on how that backlog accumulated in such a short time.

The committee made many recommendations in its report, all of which align with the UNCRPD. One was to implement the recommendations of the Ombudsman’s report after it found that 1,300 young people are living in nursing homes involuntarily. I received a very alarming response to a parliamentary question today that brought up a lot of emotions when I realised how little of the 2021 budget allocation had been spent on goals such as decongregation. Of the €4.1 million allocated in 2020 with the objective of decongregating disabled people from living in residential settings when they want to live in the community or independently, less than 25% has been invested. Of the €3 million allocated in 2020 to free young people from nursing homes in 2021, it seems like not 1 cent has been spent. This leads us to wonder what is the point of these announcements of additional spending come October. How can the Government continue to publicise policies that say they will change these injustices yet never put the money where it is supposed to go? It is embarrassing that in Ireland’s initial report under the UNCRPD we list the ratification of the convention as an important milestone as if we did not drag our heels for 12 years and were the last country in Europe to ratify, and that we did not sign the optional protocol at the same time. It does not offer a true picture of the political will that exists to truly and really empower disabled people. As Mr. Gerard Quinn, the UN special rapporteur, told the committee, the delay has been completely unnecessary. The optional protocol should have been ratified at the same time as the convention.

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