Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

We absolutely support the motion. I will start by quoting a document I received from Rehab in response to budget 2024. The words probably encapsulate the feeling of every similar organisation, including St. Joseph's Foundation in my area and Enable Ireland. These organisations speak of their frustration and the lack of certainty that pertains to their funding and that of their sector. Rehab states:

We are concerned that there are still enormous challenges facing the organisations that provide essential services to people with disabilities. Disability service providers are left completely in the dark as to whether they will be able to continue to provide the same level of services in 2024. One area of major concern is that there is no reference to essential inflationary funding, which was provided in last year's budget.

It goes on:

There is a serious risk that, over time, voluntary organisations will be unable to fulfil their service arrangements to the HSE. The State relies on us to deliver a statutory obligation to people with disabilities but it is not providing the resources to do so.

That encapsulates the reason we are here tonight. On so many evenings, this has been a constant theme, but the difference between tonight and every other night is that the workers are at the WRC. The campaign continues and it will not stop because there is now momentum behind it. As sure as I stood with the workers in Charleville around this time last year, there is cast-iron determination to ensure they will be listened to and to seek vindication of their right to parity of esteem. We talk about parity of esteem on this island quite a bit but workers doing the same job under different contracts should have the same terms and conditions of employment. If the Taoiseach, Deputy Varadkar, wants this country to be the best in Europe in which to be a child and if he is serious about this, he, as Taoiseach, should take the lead on this to ensure workers, no matter which organisation they work for, will have the same terms and conditions of employment.

Dr. Martin O'Donnell, who founded St. Joseph's Foundation, passed away in 2020.I remember speaking about him in this very House during a similar debate not long after he passed away. He was a great man with a great team around him. It was said of him when he set up the foundation that he was the man who brought the children down from the attic. They had been hidden from public view and were kept away. I sometimes feel as if we have, in some symbolic way, made improvements regarding the social outlets that people with intellectual disabilities have; however, have we followed through with the type of services that children, young adults and older adults need in this sector? Until we have parity of esteem whereby people are treated equally and given the same rate of pay for doing the same job, no matter what organisation they work for, we will be at nothing. It needs to happen. The campaign will not stop until pay parity is achieved and the link with public sector pay is restored. We support that. I do not believe there is anybody in this House – in government or opposition – who does not support that principle, but people like the Taoiseach who say Ireland should be the best country in Europe in which to be a child should note it must include children served by the affected workers, who work with them day in, day out. They must be treated equally if the statement is to be taken seriously. If it were not for people like Dr. Martin O'Donnell, we would possibly still be in the Dark Ages. We have still a long way to go. The recent pronouncements and public utterances by the Ombudsman for Children are proof of how far behind we are in treating all citizens equally, no matter their abilities or disabilities.

I get very confused about all the initiatives that come before us. Jesus, we have initiative after initiative, and it seems the whole system is becoming more complicated rather than more simplified. We talk about an action plan for disability services, a roadmap for children's disability services and a roadmap for service improvements. The figures do not lie. Maybe they do, actually, because I doubt the veracity of even HSE figures provided to us as Members of this House as there seems to be such fluidity in how that organisation manages the vast resources it receives from the taxpayer to deliver these very services to the people.

In July 2023, 104,095 people were waiting for services across the disciplines of psychology, occupational therapy, physiotherapy, speech and language therapy, dietetics, ophthalmology, audiology. The comparative figure for June 2022 is 96,000. I do not have a figure for July 2022. If those figures are true - and I have my doubts - the figures on the waiting lists are increasing.

Let us layer on top of that the creation of children's disability network teams, CDNTs. I have been in this House for 16 years and I am still trying to interrogate what a CDNT is, how it operates, what its structures are and what the governance around CDNTs is. People are doing their best to create these teams. I know what they are. However, I do not have a sense that there is a consistent approach across the country. Some are doing well and others are not. Some have capacity and others do not. Until there is proper consistency, we will be at nothing and we will be coming back to this House to debate these issues.

I have figures and, for the third time, I say I do not know how true the figures are. They were provided to me in a reply to a parliamentary question, as were the previous figures. The number of children awaiting first contact for all CDNTs stood at 14,702 in July 2023, which is the latest figure I have. That figure speaks volumes about the number of children who still need to get in the front door. Some children are excluded, they are currently outside the front door and until they can get in the front door, we will need to see improvements. To be fair to the Minister of State, as one tries to be objective, the total number for September 2022 was 18,473.Again, I put a health warning on these figures. They are HSE figures provided by way of replies to parliamentary questions. There seems to be a reduction, which suggests there has been some improvement, but there is a long way to go. Some 14,702 children are still waiting which is too many children by any international standard.

We need to look at parity of esteem, pay parity and section 39 of the health Act. There needs to be a paradigm shift in how the HSE acts as the funder of organisations such as those I mentioned, including Rehab, St. Joseph's Foundation, Enable Ireland and all the other wonderful organisations that do such great work on our behalf. These organisations are price takers. I go back to the words of Rehab, which I think speaks for every organisation when it says there is a serious risk that over time voluntary organisations will be unable to fulfil their service arrangements to the HSE and that the State relies on them to deliver its statutory obligation to people with disabilities but it is not providing the resources to do so. We need that to be tackled.

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