Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I will start by welcoming the people in the Gallery, some of whom are from disability services and some of whom have disabilities themselves. I welcome the families who might be watching this at home or who are logging in tomorrow to watch it. I commend my colleague Deputy Tully who has been a real advocate for people with disabilities since she was appointed to the position of party spokesperson in the Dáil.

Often when families get a diagnosis, it is stark and, unfortunately, it is often a battle a day for some families. We need to end that and to make it easier. I am sure my office is not unique in having families coming to us in distress and in putting us in the bizarre position where we have to contact individual Ministers, contact the HSE and submit parliamentary questions for simple stuff, simple services, and simple supports families should have been getting.

The Minister said providers need to be properly staffed and, obviously, everyone agrees with that but they will not be properly staffed unless people are treated properly. As regards section 39 workers, as my colleague said, many people went to bed last night not expecting to have the services they vitally need in the morning and it is no way to conduct industrial relations. The unions were up for talking months ago and this could have been resolved months and months ago. We did not have to go down to the wire and we definitely did not have to have people going to bed and not knowing what services they would or would not have in the morning.

I welcome confirmation of a pay rise for those operating in the sector, although I appreciate they needed that pay rise and deserve more. A reluctance to invest in disability services and work within disability services has become part of the narrative around this Government. The recent budget was from a Government that failed to tackle the overarching issues of housing and health, but for many the cruellest aspect of the budget was the failure to appreciate the struggles those with disabilities and their families go through on an almost daily basis.

In my home constituency of Limerick, we have incredible disability service providers such as Family Carers Ireland, Dóchas, and Headway. Dóchas, for instance, is an autism support group that does fantastic work with individuals and their families, from family support to social clubs. It is the type of organisation that should be better supported by governments but instead it needs to constantly fundraise for itself.

The meagre €64 million allocation in budget 2024 in funding for additional services just does not match up to what is needed. The rates of poverty for those with a disability are four times the average and, of course, it is because funding is just not devoted to them. What should have been addressed, and was not, is the gap in funding for those who live with a disability. Unfortunately, I have run out of time.

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