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

I could talk for hours about it, but anyway. I move:

That Dáil Éireann:

condemns the Government's Budget for 2024 which, like previous Budgets, falls far short of what is required for disability services, meaning that children will continue to wait too long for, and go without, the assessments and therapies they need, while young people with disabilities will remain inappropriately placed in nursing homes, and carers will continue to burnout without respite;

notes that: — the Disability Capacity Review to 2032: A Review of Disability Social Care Demand and Capacity Requirements up to 2032 was published in July 2021 and it estimated the level of residential services, day services, personal assistance and home supports, respite services, therapies and community services required up to 2032;

— the estimates for personal assistance and the proposed funding allocations were roundly criticised by disabled persons organisations as inadequate to truly support independent living;

— more than two years after its publication, the Government have yet to publish a costed action plan to implement the findings of the capacity review; and

— the Government's mental health policies, Sharing the Vision: A Mental Health Policy for Everyone and A Vision for Change, indicate a need for 16 Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services Intellectual Disability Teams comprising 176 staff yet only four teams are in place; further notes that: — the Government have yet to agree a sustainable funding model for section 39 organisations, which provide essential core services for people with disabilities on behalf of the Health Service Executive;

— disability service providers are facing severe cost pressures which have not been addressed on a sustainable basis and which were only temporarily addressed by a non-recurring subsidy in 2023; and

— the Government have yet to ratify the Optional Protocol of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, despite commitments by Government parties to do so and previous motions agreed by Dáil Éireann calling on the Government to do so; and calls on the Government to: — guarantee that the one-off payments provided to assist disability service providers to cover the ongoing high cost of delivering existing services in 2023 will be repeated for 2024;

— address the recruitment and retention crisis in disability services by making a better offer to trade unions and allocating the funding necessary to achieve pay parity for workers in section 39 organisations;

— revise the budgetary provisions for disability services so that new monies available for improvements amount to at least €155 million next year and separately to ensure that the costs of disability and of running disability services are properly provided for; and

— publish a fully costed disability action plan which meets the needs of people with disabilities, including existing unmet needs and expected future needs, and which places disability services on a sustainable footing.

I welcome the outcome of the talks that resulted in the suspension of strike action by health and social care workers today. This news came as a relief to disabled people and their families. If unresolved, it would have caused serious hardship for disabled people, family carers and the wider community because these workers work in front-line services, including disability and children's services, care for older people, homelessness, addiction and so on. I welcome the increase in the funding offer for pay; we will wait to see if this is acceptable to the workers. I regret that this could not have been resolved sooner and had to be brought right up to the deadline where workers would have gone out on strike today and services for disabled people would have been greatly affected. This sort of last-minute brinksmanship by the Government does not take the rights of disabled people and their families into consideration. It caused a lot of stress and worry for people in recent days and weeks, which could have been avoided. I welcome reports that this agreement includes a method to deal with the question of restoring the link between these workers with equivalent pay grades in the public sector. I stress that this is key and must be got right or the Government will find itself back in the same scenario down the line. I also hope that this is not a tactic by the Government to kick the can down the road, a road it knows will, all too soon, come to an end.

Disability services, disabled people and their families have been failed by this budget. It does not commit to sufficient funding to meet the recommendations of the disability capacity review. The review lays out what is needed in real terms to meet the needs of people with disabilities over the next few years. It spells out that disability services need at least €80 million to €90 million in additional resources every year up to 2032 to allow for expected future needs and for existing unmet need across respite, residential and day services, multidisciplinary therapy services, home care and personal assistant services, yet, in the budget, the Government only provided €64.1 million towards additional measures - €55.6 million for the disability action plan and €8.5 million for the disability roadmap. That is nowhere near sufficient and will lead to the further deterioration of services. The Minister also announced that there would be capital funding of €23.7 million to provide for the upgrade and development of disability services. However, there are no specifics as to what this money is to be spent on. Regardless, it is nowhere near sufficient and will result in many people languishing in congregated settings or nursing homes who should be transitioned to appropriate accommodation either in a supported living unit or in their own homes in the community. It makes pronouncements by the Government about moving away from a medical, charity model of disability to a rights-based disability model sound very hollow indeed. The Government cannot continue to starve disability services of the funding they require to deliver the services disabled people and their families deserve and have a right to. In terms of delivering on the recommendations of the disability capacity review, in our alternative budget document, Sinn Féin committed to new measures totalling €155 million on top of what is needed to maintain existing levels of services, progress decongregation, provide additional respite and deliver further day service places. It includes supplying more intensive home support packages, funding personal assistant hours and a training and development fund for disabled persons organisations, DPOs.

For disabled people, their family carers and those delivering key services, the Government must revise its budgetary allocations for disability services. It has the money to sort this out. It cannot starve the vital services of funding they need to deliver services disabled people deserve and have a right to. The failure of this budget on disability services must be fixed. I wish to say hello to all of the people in the Gallery who are here for this evening's debate.

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