Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I welcome today’s motion. I thank the Regional Group for highlighting this important issue. As Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, the issue of accessibility and having appropriate transport and mobility supports is raised with me frequently by people with disabilities. It is an issue on which the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, and I are focused.

There is a complexity to the transport issue, which I acknowledge at the very outset of our discussions today. Policies, services and supports have changed radically since the likes of both the disabled drivers and disabled passengers scheme and the now-closed mobility allowance and motorised transport grant were first adopted in the 1960s and 1970s, and especially so in Ireland since we ratified the UNCRPD in 2018.

These schemes were very much based on that old-fashioned medical model of disability. That was at a time when there was little to no accessible transport available for people with disabilities, let alone the more comprehensive and deeper understanding of the human rights of persons with disabilities we now have. We both absolutely acknowledge that there is still significant work to be done to develop adequate joined-up transport and mobility supports. At the same time, we should not lose sight of the progress achieved since the Commission on the Stratus of Disabilities delivered its landmark report entitled A Strategy for Equality in 1996. That progress has been advanced through the Disability Act 2005 and various successive national disability policy frameworks since then.

To look at some of the positive actions that have been taken in the area of transport, there is ongoing work to make public transport increasingly accessible, which is being led by the Minister for Transport in partnership with the National Transport Authority. Examples include upgrading older infrastructure to make it fully accessible; working to develop soft types of supports that enable disabled people to travel independently on public transport, a few examples of which Deputy Lowry referred to; and linking public transport in rural areas with existing HSE services.

The disability entitlement to the free travel scheme administered by the Minister for Social Protection has been recently reviewed and the criteria are now more open. For example, a person aged under 66 may qualify for the travel pass if he or she is in receipt of the disability allowance, blind pension or invalidity pension. Moreover, a companion free travel card entitles the holder to have any one person aged 16 years or over accompany him or her free of charge when travelling. This is designed for people who, on account of their particular disability, are unable to travel alone.

Furthermore, the carer of a person with a disability may also qualify for a free travel pass in their own right if they are in receipt of carer's allowance or if they are a specified carer for a person getting a constant attendance allowance or a prescribed relative allowance. We have the proposals and recommendations from the transport working group, which the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, chaired last year, and these proposals provide valuable suggestions for a strong vision for enhanced and joined-up transport and mobility supports, going forward, and suggested ways in which that vision can be achieved.

Notwithstanding these positive initiatives, it is clear there is more work to do, particularly in the area of personal and community transport supports. The ombudsman's reports and the work of the transport working group clearly and rightly indicate that we have much more to do to develop joined-up and adequate transport supports for people with disabilities across Ireland. There are no easy solutions to the issues raised in the motion today. One of the clear findings of the transport working group report was the need for whole-of-government action on this issue. I am committed to working with my colleagues across government, and with people with disabilities and their representative organisations, to continue to address the barriers and challenges faced by people with disabilities in the course of seeking to live independently.

Apart from now holding responsibility for specialised community-based disability services which support some 80,000 people with disabilities on a daily basis, my Department serves as the national focal point and co-ordination mechanism under the UNCRPD. In that regard, it is responsible for co-ordinating action across government on a range of issues including transport. The work of the transport working group reflected this function in seeking to bring together those Departments and agencies with responsibility for transport policy and transport schemes. That work will continue to be advanced in the cross-government development of the new national disability strategy, which my Department is working intensively on following the conclusion of the previous disability inclusion strategy. It is, therefore, a timely opportunity in the development of the new strategy for the required level and scale of collaboration across government on many issues of concern to people with disabilities, including issues related to transport and mobility.

With the transfer of specialist and community-based disability services now achieved, a clear focus of my Department's work this year will be to collaborate with other Departments and agencies to in order to identify sectoral leadership across government on a range of issues required for further realisation of the UNCRPD. This is necessary in order to ensure that new measures and the joining-up of transport and mobility supports are appropriately co-ordinated and grounded in a mainstream-first approach. The mainstream-first approach was first recommended by the Commission on the Status of People with Disabilities in 1996. It is embedded in the 2005 legislation and stems from the UNCRPD. As such, it is not new, but we need to constantly renew our commitment to the important principle of mainstream first to address many of the complex issues the Deputies have raised in their motion today. No single Department or agency can provide all of the required services that address the needs of the over 600,000 people with disabilities whose daily lives are and should be as diverse as each individual person.

In developing the new national disability strategy, we will make challenging decisions around priorities and actions to be undertaken. This was a clear learning from the national disability inclusion strategy and was shared by many of its stakeholders.

There will always be competing priorities to balance in the disability policy landscape. A robust evidence base and extensive stakeholder consultation is needed to inform priorities pursued under the new national disability strategy, and to ensure that disabled people and their representative organisations have a role in shaping those priorities.

Following the mainstream-first approach, it will be incumbent on all Departments and agencies with transport and mobility-related responsibilities to ensure they discharge their functions, duties and responsibilities in a way that promotes equality and is inclusive of all people, including those with a disability. Moreover, we need to ensure that the next steps we take as a Government are part of a coherent overall policy approach with clear sectoral leadership. I recognise there is an urgency to the work required. As such, a considered approach to next steps and to the identification of sectoral leadership to advance a co-ordinated mainstream-first approach will without question result in better transport and mobility outcomes for people with disabilities in the long term.

Over the coming months and through the development of the new national disability strategy, I will be calling on all Departments and agencies with a role in this area to consider the proposals and recommendations of the transport working group in order to identify sectoral leaders on key issues and to develop the evidence base we need to make informed choices in an explicitly mainstream-first approach. I will be asking my colleagues in government to consider existing schemes and how they can be amended or better co-ordinated, as I will be considering similar issues within my own Department's remit.

The challenge in creating a scheme that is broad enough to support people with disabilities on a needs-based model, and is also sustainable from the perspective of long-term Exchequer financing, will require careful consideration and will require time to work through so that appropriate decisions, based on the real needs of people with disabilities, can be made. That is why I welcome today’s motion and the opportunity to update the House on work being conducted within my Department. As part of that discussion, we must also recognise the work required to deliver on the calls made by the Regional Independent Group, including the need for mature collaboration across government. There is a real and clear opportunity to address the issues that are being raised today as part of the development process for a new national disability strategy this year. I look forward to working with my colleagues across government, and indeed with Deputies here today, many of whom have spoken at length about the issue in the past. I look forward to working with Deputies to deliver a strategy that is ambitious, embraces the core principle of mainstreaming and delivers results for persons with disabilities.

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