Pauline Tully (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Yesterday the Minister, in a press conference, expanded slightly on the measures for disability services but we need to hear more about exactly where the money is going. The Minister announced that there would be capital funding of €23.7 million to provide for the upgrade and development of disability services. We do not have specific details on how this will be allocated. Will some of it be allocated to decongregation? I really hope so. In 2022, only 35 people were transitioned from congregated settings into supported community living. In 2023, no further funding was made available for decongregation, which makes pronouncements by this Government about moving away from a medical, charity-based model of disability care to a rights-based model sound very hollow indeed.

On children's disability network teams, CDNTs, there is a staff vacancy rate of 34%, equating to 707 staff vacancies, according to the HSE census which was carried out almost a year ago. I believe, having spoken to a number of people, that the figures are even worse now. Yesterday the Minister announced €8.5 million to improve children's services, including the recruitment of additional therapy positions, increasing third level places, and support for specialist disability services. All of that is welcome but it is not sufficient. The Government is underestimating the problems that exist within the CDNTs. The implementation of progressing disability services has been a failure. There are almost 10,000 children with disabilities waiting for over 12 months for initial contact with a specialist team. There were 5,484 overdue applications for the assessment of need process in the first quarter of this year. This is a priority area for Sinn Féin and should be so for the Government but yesterday's announcement says otherwise. The Minister has said previously that money is not necessarily the whole problem. Obviously money and investment is needed but I am hearing that there are lots of issues with the CDNTs relating to governance and management and until they are dealt with, recruitment into those teams will not succeed.

There will be statements in the House tomorrow on section 39 and section 56 organisations and I will be speaking during that debate. I do not know, because it is not obvious, whether money has been put aside to address the pay disparity problem. Perhaps negotiations are going on to resolve that issue before the planned strike on Tuesday. I certainly hope so because a strike would have a devastating effect on disabled people and their families if it goes ahead. This issue needs to be resolved once and for all because it has been going on for so long at this stage.

In terms of the announcements in yesterday's budget relating to childcare, while there are some welcome measures to address children's needs, a number of these are short-term and will not provide much-needed long-term stability for low-income families. The one-off payments of child benefit, the back-to-school allowance, and the working family payment are all welcome but they will only have a short-lived impact for families that are already struggling. The Minister's commitment to reduce childcare fees by 25% is very welcome. However, the rationale for forcing families to wait for 11 months is baffling. There are other measures such as the extension of the free schoolbook scheme to junior cycle and the expansion of the Access and Inclusion Model, AIM, which are also very welcome. Nonetheless, it is disappointing that no future commitments were given to further reduce childcare fees. Likewise, a 74 cent increase to the universal rate of the national childcare scheme will, in reality, barely make a dent in the costs faced by parents. There are families throughout the State who are deeply disappointed by how little was invested and by how long they will have to wait as the cost-of-living crisis continues to cripple families.

See this speech in context