Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Cuirim fáilte roimh na cuairteoirí thuas staighre agus gabhaim buíochas leis an Teachta Cairns as ucht an rúin seo a chur os comhair na Dála. I welcome and thank the people in the Gallery. Their work on the ground is recognised and is not wasted. There are more and more voices on their side in the Dáil. I know it is slow, but they are making progress.

This motion is a basic one. I understand that the Government is accepting it and that there is no amendment to it. The motion notes our legal obligations, it acknowledges what has been done so far with the reports, the capacity review and the cost of disability in Ireland and it asks for four specific things, which are very basic. The first is to introduce a cost of disability payment of at least €20 per week, which I will come back to. The second is to increase the disability allowance. The third is to publish an action plan pursuant to the disability capacity review, and that should be a basic action for the Government. The Government should also publish an action plan to implement the cost of disability. The fourth is to honour the programme for Government commitment to make the results of the cost of disability report part of Government policy.

Theoretically, we have made great strides. I will use Galway as an example. The Barcelona Declaration was agreed 20 years ago in order that we would stop the division and discrimination. We adapted the motto that good design enables and bad design disables and we passed the Barcelona Declaration. Theoretically, that was a brilliant step forward but the declaration was not implemented in full. When Covid came, it was simply thrown aside when we placed a major emphasis on businesses operating outdoors. The Barcelona Declaration has gone by the wayside. The same happened with the UNCRPD. A huge amount of time has passed since we signed it, although we have not ratified the protocol. The language in that document is wonderful, but we are still going on the basis of a piecemeal approach and charity as opposed to making that language a reality. As a practical example, if we had really embraced the Barcelona Declaration, it would have been uppermost when the Government encouraged businesses to move their operations out into public spaces.

The Indecon report was published in December. There is a background to that, as has been set out. Deputy Catherine Murphy mentioned a report from 1996. The one I have is from 2004. That report, also compiled by Indecon, related to the National Disability Authority. An estimated cost of €143 per week was outlined in it. In 2015, the Cullinan and Lyons report used the data from the survey on income and living and found that the average additional weekly cost was €207. Then we have the Indecon report. I will run out of time, but Indecon says that there is no single cost of disability due to a wide range in the severity of disabilities and so on. However, the figures are astronomical. They go up to €16,000 per year for those who have severe limitations as a result of their disabilities. The Indecon report goes on to say that income supports will not be sufficient and that there is a need for a multifaceted approach, which I fully agree with. I am worried that in the lovely speech made earlier, there was no commitment to an action plan, to production and publication and to making this a reality. I welcome that as I was getting out of my chair the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, announced that she intends to carry out an audit of respite services. She might clarify that point.

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