Duncan Smith (Dublin Fingal, Labour) | Oireachtas source

We are a week away from it and there is no mention of it. We will have statements on that in particular on Thursday, but why is there no mention of it? Why is this important? I think it is because these workers are in an area that this Government does not care about, namely, people with disabilities, who are the most vulnerable in our society.

This is a €14 billion budget. It is a “step change” budget. However, it is not a “step change” for people with disabilities. It is the same old case of being forgotten and being left behind. Let me tell the Minister of State that there is a disability capacity review that is two years and four months old. This Government is ignoring it. It launched a disability action plan in the summer for a period of three years. The capacity review goes on until 2032, but the Government launched its own action plan this summer which will go on for three years. It bears no resemblance to the lead in the capacity review - none whatsoever. There are 315 people who are in need of immediate supports in disability services at the moment. There are 315, but this budget calls for emergency supports for 90. Do you know what? That is the exact same figure that the Government called for last year. The Government has rebranded it and called it its long-term disability action plan, but it is no such thing. The Government has not published its own disability action plan, the real one to meet the unmet need in the disability capacity review. There is no way for the Government to spin its way out of this. There is no way to do videos on social media to get its way out of this. It has made a political choice. With all the money swishing around in the coffers of Government Buildings and the Department of Finance, it has made a choice not to invest the €270 million that is needed for disability services. We in the Labour Party would not make that choice. There are no mitigating factors here. The money is there and the Government has made that choice. Maybe it is because it is under the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth and the Minister, Deputy O’Gorman, could only get a couple of wins or concessions and this was not one of them. I do not know. What I do know is that we met with parents in St. Michael’s House last week and one of them asked us, “Why are we always last?” Well, after this budget, they are still last. Parents of people with disabilities, as well as people with disabilities themselves, remain last. This Government have made that abundantly clear to them.

The few payments the Government has put in their way do not meet the costs in The Cost of Disability in Ireland report, another independent report that was commissioned in the lifetime of this Government and which shows costs ranging approximately €10,000 extra per annum. Again, there is absolutely nothing from this Government that will meet that.

There has been no progress on Sláintecare; it seems to be non-existent. In health, we see investment in beds which we know the Government will not be able to staff because it has not been able to staff the beds it announced last year.

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