Pauline Tully (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Bill and the resulting transfer of statutory responsibility for disability services from the Minister for Health to the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth. This transfer is not before time. The Joint Committee on Disability Matters had been requesting information on when this would happen for more than a year and a half and was initially told it was going to happen a year ago. I welcome that it has happened at long last.

Disability is not solely a health matter. It is good then that the transfer is occurring in recognition of that. There is a need to move away from the medical model of disability and embrace a rights-based model. We need to view disability as caused by the way society is organised rather than by a person's impairment or difference. We need to look at ways of removing barriers that restrict life choices for disabled people in order that when these barriers are removed, disabled people can be independent and equal in society with choice and control over their lives.

The ratification of the UNCRPD in 2018 was a step in the right direction in this sense. There is still a long way to go before the social model is truly embraced, however. The optional protocol of the convention has not yet been ratified. While this is the case, disabled people have little or no recourse if their rights under the UNCRPD are not upheld.

The disability capacity review highlights the scale of the work required in specialist community-based disability services. Changing demographics and the current level of unmet need means that major budget increases will be essential. Access to housing and independent living supports are also essential to a rights-based model of disability but so far, approximately 1,800 disabled people are still living in large residential settings. The congregation process has been a failure. Very few people have been transferred from large residential settings to community living since 2012 when the time to move on from congregated sessions was published. In fact, the disability capacity review informs us that by the end of 2018, approximately 800 of the 1,500 people who no longer resided in one of these centres had transitioned to the community but approximately 700 had sadly passed away. Approximately 1,300 disabled people under the age of 65 are currently residing in nursing homes because we do not have the supported living settings for them to live with their peers in the community.

In response to the Ombudsman's report, Wasted Lives: Time for a Better Future for Younger People in Nursing Homes, the HSE committed to transitioning 18 people under the age of 65 from nursing homes. That is less than 2%. Currently, the rate of poverty and social exclusion for disabled people in Ireland is one of the highest in the EU at 38.1%. The poverty rate for disabled people was exacerbated by the 2008 financial economic crisis and subsequent response to austerity as the poverty rate for disabled people consistently increased from 9% in 2009 to 24% by 2017.

They are obviously adversely affected by the current rise in the cost of living. A European Commission report on Ireland published in 2019 revealed that Ireland has one of the lowest employment rates for people with disabilities in the EU at 26.2% compared with the EU average of 48.1%. Among disabled people aged 15 to 30, 13.7% have not progressed any higher than primary level education in comparison with 4.2% of the general population. There is a data deficit when it comes to disability. Data from various Departments needs to be married to ensure the most comprehensive person-centred responses can be delivered. Without baseline data it would be very hard to track success or otherwise in disability services.

We were informed that the backlog of children and young people waiting on an assessment of needs increased from 500 in the summer to almost 4,000 in November 2021. I am told by the children's disability network teams, CDNT, that children all over the country are not receiving therapies. Parents are being given courses and told to assist their children at home.

Parents are not qualified therapists and this should not be their responsibility. Children's disability network teams must be properly resourced and staffed.

Ireland is rich in policy and relevant legislation but we are constantly and consistently weak on implementation. There are notable parts of the Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Act, the Disability Act and the Citizens Information Act, which are the pillars of disability inclusion legislation, that have not been implemented. While I welcome this Bill and the resulting transfer of statutory responsibilities for disability service delivery, it is only right to point out the scale of the work facing us in delivering for this sector is huge. A change in faces, Departments or Ministers will not in itself bring about that delivery if the political will does not exist.

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