Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I move:

That Dáil Éireann: notes that:

- Ireland signed the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) in 2007, and ratified it in 2018;

- in ratifying the UNCRPD, Ireland has committed to providing the highest attainable standard of healthcare for people with disabilities and to the provision of comprehensive housing and rehabilitation services, to enable disabled people to attain or regain maximum independence; and

- approximately one in seven people in Ireland has a disability, as defined under Article 1 of the UNCRPD;

acknowledges that:

- disabled people are among those who most acutely experience the cost-of-living crisis;

- the report entitled "The Cost of Disability in Ireland" was published on 7th December, 2021, and found that the additional cost of disability ranged between €8,700 and €12,300 per annum;

- the report found that meeting these higher costs was particularly difficult for the 152,000 people on the disability allowance, which is paid at a rate of just €208 per week;

- an Economic and Social Research Institute report entitled "Headline Poverty Target Reduction in Ireland and the Role of Work and Social Welfare", published on 13th June, 2022, found that lone parents and working-age adults with disabilities experience "distinctively high rates of income poverty, deprivation and consistent poverty";

- a major component of the additional costs faced by disabled people, and the families of children with disabilities, relate to grossly inadequate education, healthcare, social welfare and housing services;

- the Disability Capacity Review to 2032 - A Review of Disability Social Care Demand and Capacity Requirements up to 2032 (the Disability Capacity Review) was published on 15th July, 2021;

- the Disability Capacity Review found "significant levels of unmet need" in the provision of disability services, including a shortfall of up to 2,300 residential care places;

- on 5th April, 2022, the Minister for Health, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, informed the Dáil that a working group tasked with implementing the findings of the Disability Capacity Review, by developing an action plan for the period 2022 to 2025, had completed its work and an action plan was being finalised;

- nearly three months later, that action plan has not yet been published; and

- any action plan must be accompanied by the resourcing required to address the urgent and critical needs identified in the disability capacity review, including a substantial plan in budget 2023; and

calls on the Government to:

- introduce a cost of disability payment in budget 2023 of at least €20 per week, as a first step to addressing the significant additional costs of having a disability;

- increase the disability allowance by at least €15 per week;

- publish the action plan to implement the disability capacity review, including setting out a plan to fill the 732 vacant posts for therapists providing services for children with disabilities;

- publish the action plan to implement the Cost of Disability in Ireland report;

- honour the commitment in the Programme for Government: Our Shared Future to use the findings of the Cost of Disability in Ireland report to "inform the direction of future policy"; and

- guarantee an appropriate school place for every child with a disability.

I acknowledge the people and organisations in the Gallery and those watching at home this morning. Today is another day we discuss policy that deeply affects their lives. There are few groups in society whose opportunities and quality of life is so profoundly shaped by the Government. Decisions voted on in this House can provide or restrict healthcare, facilitate or deny employment and assign payments that keep people in poverty or allow them to live with dignity. Even more significant is the fact that individuals and cohorts most impacted have the least say.

We try to do things differently in the Social Democrats. Our motion is based on engagement with the Oireachtas disability group, which has helped us understand the specific and large policy context. Disabled people, their representative organisations and advocates are the experts. At all stages, our decisions on disability matters should be guided by them. I hope this motion shows to those in the Gallery and watching online that the Social Democrats are serious about evidence-based policy directly informed by the lived experience of those affected by those policies.

Today we are going to talk about different statistics. Each of these is necessary and important but we must remember there are individuals, groups and families behind these figures. Each number hides the lived experience of almost 750,000 people, not to mind their families, partners, carers and communities. This morning's discussion will highlight that disabled people are three times more likely to live in consistent poverty, that Ireland has the lowest employment rate for disabled people in the EU at 32% and that families have to fundraise for basic equipment and vehicle adaptions the State should be providing.

Statistics and examples only hint at the lived experience of a person being denied the right to full participation in society. Numbers do not represent the stories of capable, complex humans who want to contribute to society and who want to live independent lives. They do not relate the stories of parents who have had to fight for every basic State service from the moment their child was born. Each one of these cases is about rights. Appropriate payments, healthcare, education, housing and employment opportunities are not optional. They are not charity. They are the basics each person is entitled to.

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities, UNCRPD, guarantees the right to equal treatment, access to services and to participate in decision making. Every week at the disability matters committee, the Oireachtas committee that oversees the implementation of the UNCRPD, we hear about how the State is failing to meet its obligations. Nearly one in four people did not use the personal assistance public service as it was not available or suitable. The most recent figures I received from the HSE indicate that more than 1,700 children were overdue an assessment of need, itself a system that has been thrown further into further disarray after the recent High Court ruling on its inadequacies. More than 1,300 people under 65 years are living in nursing homes because of a lack of suitable supported housing.

Crucially, this is not just about a breach of rights and these examples are part of a system that creates disability. Our understanding of the UNCRPD is through a social model lens that shows us how people are disabled by barriers in society, not by their capacities or differences. An extreme lack of accessible toilets and changing places restricts people from being able to socialise and leave home and an absence of flexible work arrangements prevents people from entering employment, with vastly insufficient social protection payments trapping people in poverty and worsening conditions. Until Ministers, Departments and State bodies demonstrate that they understand what a rights-based approach and the social model is, these fundamental issues will continue, creating and compounding disability.

Disabled persons' organisations, advocacy and support organisations, and local campaign groups, such as West Cork Special School, Families Unite for Special Services, FUSS, and the Parents Cork Advocacy Network help illustrate state failures. They reveal the daily breaching of rights and predominance of the medicalised model of disability in public bodies and paternalistic treatment of disabled people.

Significantly, the scale of the issues are catalogued by two Government reports. The first is the disability capacity review, published just under a year ago, which quantifies the current and future need for disability support services. One of the key issues highlighted is:

significant levels of unmet need for disability services, and that changes in the size and age profile of the disability service population will add to unmet need over the coming decade. Addressing demographic change alone would not be sufficient, as the current level of unmet need is not sustainable.

There is a need to spend between €550 million to €1 billion extra each year to meet the needs of the growing and aging population between now and 2032. This funding is needed for residential services and supported housing, adult day programmes, multidisciplinary therapy services, personal assistance and respite. The disability capacity review outlines the position and it is up to the Government to respond quickly and sufficiently. Unfortunately, despite this report being published almost 12 months ago and being with the Department of Health for substantial time before then, there is no clear plan.

On 5 April, the Minister for Health informed the Dáil that a working group, tasked with developing an action plan for the period 2022 to 2025, had completed its work. Nearly three months later, that action plan has not yet been published. Where is the plan? Where is the urgency to meet current unmet need not to mind future need? Our motion is calling for the immediate publishing of this plan, which must be supported by adequate resourcing and a commitment to implementation.

It is not just a matter of funding announcements. There is a massive gap between Government press releases and services on the ground. Recent cases of eating disorder treatment funding and other mental health programmes show us that funding can be reassigned and unspent. There is ambiguity around how HSE budgets are allocated and spent. For example, I and many other Deputies deal with cases where individuals are granted home support hours but only get a fraction of what they should. There is also the question of staffing. No service can happen without staff, including doctors, nurses, therapists, clinicians and management and support staff. Children's disability network team places are unfilled. Our motion has to specifically ask for a plan to fill the 732 vacant posts for therapists providing services for children with disabilities.

It is important to say that the failure of progressing disability services is not a representation of the amazing staff working in these teams; we simply need more of them. There is a pressing need to address retention and recruitment. Excellent people who want to help people and who chose a caring profession are leaving because of the poor conditions, low pay and plummeting morale. Students in healthcare, especially nursing and therapies, receive little to no remuneration and their first experience of working in the Irish health service is off-putting straight away. We also must have greater recognition and support for the role of healthcare assistants. Any action plan in response to the disability capacity review must include a comprehensive strategy and accompanying packages to recruit and retain staff.

The second key Government document is the Cost of Disability in Ireland report, published in December and only after considerable pressure from disability organisations and Opposition parties.

It found that actual costs faced by individuals ranged between €8,700 and €12,300 every year. This is worth repeating. It can cost more than €12,000 annually to have a disability in Ireland. Combine that with systemic underemployment of disabled people and the massive unmet needs in care, and it is no wonder we have disgracefully high rates of consistent poverty and social isolation among disabled people.

The Cost of Disability in Ireland report, written before the cost-of-living crisis, stated that households, including a member with a disability spent over 8% more on food and almost 10% more on fuel and electricity. This has been exacerbated by skyrocketing energy and food prices. Disabled people are among those who most acutely experience the cost-of-living crisis. This is not to take away for one second from the challenges and sacrifices of other families, but we know that households with a disabled member are feeling this much more. There is a glaring need for an action plan to address this crisis. After working with the Oireachtas disability group and looking at all the information available to us, we are pushing for an effective comprehensive course of action today. Money needs to be put into the pockets of people with disabilities. The Government must introduce a cost of disability payment in budget 2023 of at least €20 per week as well as an increase in the disability allowance of at least €15 per week. For a more long-term response, we want an action plan on the cost of disability report that outlines increased social protection and health payments, and introduces tax breaks for disabled individuals and their families. We also need the promised action plan to implement the disability capacity review to provide the public services required to help people live full independent lives.

We know what needs to be done. We are calling on the Government to bring in the necessary short-term and long-term changes to help people exercise their rights and live with dignity.

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