Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I do not always see the time constraints as applying to me. I may have occasionally stretched past adhering to the boundaries of the subject under discussion. I have heard that said, but I am not sure I would accept it. I thank everyone and hope they have a good and safe Christmas. In addition, I remember the family of Private Seán Rooney. I remember the sacrifice he made and the ongoing struggle for his family. That is in all our minds today.

As regards the Bill, we must congratulate the citizens' assembly on its work. The Bill addresses aspects of our past into which we do not all like to delve, such as in the context of that did not fit into a particular concept or criteria. All present know that women in particular were treated as second-class citizens at many stages through the years.

While we welcome the fact that we are heading in the right direction, my colleagues have identified specific issues, particularly in respect of the word "durable". We need to ensure the Government, the Minister and the Opposition get around to dealing with some of those questions. If we are to address an issue that has been left unaddressed for considerable time, we need to do so properly. If we are being serious, no matter what language we come up with in the context of delivering for families and wider society, we must be clear that there are many families that are under severe pressure. All Members know the issues that exist, such as the housing and cost-of-living crises. Even beyond that, there are those on the periphery of society who do not feel they have any connection to wider society. They feel far removed from the establishment. There is a requirement for the State and its resources to make very early interventions. This is not the first time I have raised this issue with the Minister. We are all aware of projects that are doing very good work, whether through NGOs, special needs assistants or specific State services, but a large number of these services do not have the capacity to deliver sufficiently to meet the want and need that exists. In many cases, such as disability or mental health services, additional resources are required. Often, the resources are not being delivered at an early stage. We often talk about early interventions but we all know, as constituency TDs, that we cannot always engage a service for the people who come to us.

I find it an element of failure when somebody comes to a TD to try to rectify an issue, whether it is with regard to disability services or not. I do not know how many times we have all been in this Chamber talking about the huge issues that exist with regard to waiting on assessments of needs but then, beyond that, awaiting therapies. People think it is going to be rectified and sometimes, even in that case, they accept that there will be a two-year waiting list. On that basis, they nearly believe a knight in shining armour is going to come and provide them with a solution within two years. Generally, however, situations and circumstances do not improve in those particular issues.

Even in the last week, I have been dealing with a number of issues of people who are in need and who have issues from a mental health point of view and other particular circumstances and who find that their families cannot get the services that are required. We have made huge strides with regard to a human rights ethos that did not always exist.

We know the huge issues that existed with regard to institutional care, but there are times and places when we need to be able to deal with people who present, who are dangerous to themselves and sometimes others and who are in real trauma. We need to find a better means of dealing with it. If we are talking about families across the board, we need to be able to provide them with all that is realistic and reasonable. We are talking about everything from healthcare right through to mental health and disability services.

We all have people who come to us, and more will come, with regard to trying to get kids a place. When we talk about autism units, even where they have been planned in schools, sometimes there is a delay, but that delay will impact on families. We need to find a better way of communicating. We need to find a better way that we can actually provide these services. We have to have real conversations.

We will talk about occupational therapy, speech and language therapy and psychology and we accept we have many positions that are not filled. We know it will take a huge amount of work to fill those positions. However, if we get workforce planning correct with regard to those particular positions, we are probably still talking three, four or possibly five years before we can deliver on what is necessary. Therefore, in that time, we need to have a real conversation about what the need is, what we can provide and anything we can do, whether we are talking about technical means using online capacity or whatever else, to provide some element of service. It will be different at times. I understand that, when we are talking about children and adults and their needs, it is all very different. We absolutely have to have a real conversation about what the absolute best is that we can provide and how we can almost, for want of an absolutely terrible term, provide the best bang for buck. At times, we do not have that. We still have silo circumstances. That is accepting that I have seen some of the work that is being done with regard to having a single point of entry and triage systems. However, the unfortunate word that is nearly always used is "pilot". We really need to get beyond that. Whatever the issues as regards dealing with the wording we are going to have in these particular referendums, we have to get real regarding what we are going to provide for people.

It goes without saying that even if we get that piece of work correct with regard to added resources, early interventions and all the rest of it, we really cannot have numbers of 13,000 people and up on homeless lists in emergency accommodation. We cannot have the length of time it takes for people waiting on local authority housing lists. We cannot have those people who find themselves unable to afford rent or who cannot even find places at unaffordable rents, and people who in other circumstances, over many other years working the same jobs, would have been quite able to attain mortgages and homes. We really have a significant amount of work to do to provide something that is definitely better and deliver for our families.

In fairness, the Minister and I have spoken before about the absolute necessity to make sure we provide for equality legislation for the very changed Ireland this is for all those families and relationships and all the ways in which people live in this day and age. We must make sure we have that solidly in law and that we push back against those who sometimes are facilitated by big tech. We have seen it online. It is sometimes called the far right. I believe that sometimes provides greater credibility to these people than they deserve. At times, there is an element of lunacy out there that needs to be called out for what it is. There are a number of things we have do and that we have to get a grip on.

I believe I may have overstretched even my remit at this point. A huge piece of work has been done, particularly by the citizens' assembly. We are heading in the right direction, but there is a need to look at some of this language because we really need to get this right. We have an opportunity to do it right. We should just take the time. The Minister should work alongside the Opposition and all the other stakeholders from a point of view of delivering that.

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