Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank my colleagues, Deputies Tully and Patricia Ryan, for introducing the Bill and, in so doing, highlighting probably one of the most unfair elements of the very long waiting times experienced by many people in accessing services in local authorities. Unfortunately, due not only due to Covid but also to the fact that local authorities still have not recovered to their full pre-2008 staffing levels, it is common for people to have to wait unnecessary lengths of time. For example, the current waiting time in most local authorities for a housing needs assessment is in excess of 12 weeks, while for a housing assistance payment, HAP, application it can be in excess of 15 weeks. Those are just two examples.

This particular issue deserves special mention, however, because while in all cases we should try to increase the efficiency of local authorities and reduce the waiting time, in this case we are talking about a specific and vulnerable group of people. In many cases, these are people who are not able to adequately live in the homes in which they find themselves as a result of age, an accident-related disability or another disability. The Minister of State must have constituency clinics like ours. He must have direct experience of older people, people with disabilities and people struggling with workplace or transport accidents who have to undergo the indignity of, in some cases, waiting six to 12 months for a decision. We have not even started talking about the time it takes to get the grant drawn down after a decision is issued.

In fairness to my colleagues, they have not tried to come in here and deal with the overall complexities of the adaptation grant schemes but, rather, simply to appeal to the Government to do one small thing. Sometimes it is the small things that make a world of difference in people's lives. I do not want to use the word "honest" because I have a lot of time for the Minister of State and I know he takes his responsibilities seriously. However, he has come into this House and said he has some sympathy with the legislation but, rather than dealing with the various technical issues he has outlined on Committee Stage by way of amendment and through reasoned dialogue with the sponsors of the Bill, he is simply kicking it into touch for a year, and we know what that mechanism is for. I appreciate that he is both a junior Minister and a member of the junior partner in government and he often gets the rough end of the stick when it comes to these types of sittings where he has to deliver a message with which, I suspect, deep down, he has a little discomfort. However, it cannot be beyond his ability and that of his officials to accept the Bill, flaws and all, and then go to the relevant committee with the sponsoring Deputies and the rest of us on that committee to work out some mechanism to ensure nobody has to wait six or 12 months for an adaptation grant application.

I have often said in respect of legislation that I have drafted and brought before the House that we do not have the advantage of civil servants with great experience, of legal advisers and of the Office of the Attorney General and our ability, therefore, to craft technically perfect or sophisticated legislation is often challenging. At the very least one would expect the Government to say this is such a reasonable proposition and to ask who could be against the idea of having a time limit within which this very specific category of people would have applications processed speedily. If the specific proposition, location and wording is not technically the best way to do this, my colleagues here are eminently reasonable people - I may not be as reasonable as them on all occasions - and would be more than happy to engage with the Minister of State on Committee Stage to work out how to do that. That could be through enabling legislation to change the regulations. Our problem, of course, is that we do not get to lay secondary legislation before the House, so this is our only option.

As the decision has been made and as the Minister of State has the votes on his side of the House, this legislation and the very important recommendation underpinning it will be thrown on the scrapheap along with all of those other pieces of legislation that have been deferred for 12 months or more. I urge the Minister of State, however, in the context of his responsibilities within the Department and his engagement with his officials and the senior Minister, to come back to us as quickly as he can not only with a mechanism to speed up the decision-making process but to speed up the entire process to make it much more user-friendly and accessible.

The inconsistencies mentioned by the Minister of State are very interesting because in the South Dublin County Council area, where I am a Deputy, it used to be the case that the local authority would source occupational therapists from the HSE. Due to the changing of the HSE staffing arrangements, for many years if one lived south of the Naas Road the HSE would provide one’s occupational therapist’s report. The good people of my constituency, however, had to pay the €100, €200 or €300 for their reports and if they were tenants of the local authority, that money would not be reimbursed. That reimbursement is only for private homeowners. In some senses, the kinds of inconsistencies this Bill is trying to deal with would be much more beneficial than a situation where, depending on the postcode lottery, one would get supports and occupational therapists reports in one geographical location and not in another.

To conclude, deep down I believe the Minister of State fully supports the principle of this Bill. Perhaps not in weeks and not in primary legislation, but we would ask for a very speedy decision at this initial stage. I ask him to use the influence he has to take on board the sincerity of the proposals in this legislation and to urge his colleagues in government and in the Department to come back with a resolution to this as quickly as is possible. He will find on our side of the House a willingness to deal with whatever legislative measure is proposed, whether it is a statutory instrument or primary legislation, to ensure that no person who is in excruciating pain and who cannot use their bathroom or sink or who do not have a quality of life that we would all hope our parents, brothers and sisters to have, can have the assurance that the application process, at the very least, does not take from six to 12 months and that it happens in a speedy, timely and eminently fair manner. I thank the Acting Chairman.

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