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

I move:

That Dáil Éireann: notes that:

— the State signed the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) in 2007 and ratified the Convention in 2018, but has yet to ratify the Optional Protocol;

— more than one in eight people over the age of 15 provide care, with approximately 500,000 family carers in the State, and that the majority experience barriers accessing respite services;

— the commitment in the Programme for Government: Our Shared Future to update the National Carers' Strategy remains unfulfilled; and

— the commitment in the Programme for Government: Our Shared Future to provide for a statutory home care scheme remains unfulfilled;

further notes:

— the publication of the Action Plan for Disability Service 2024-2026; and

— the publication of the Roadmap for Service Improvement 2023-2026: Disability Services for Children and Young People;

considers that:

— waiting lists for disability services are far too long, where they are maintained, and that personal assistance services are far too limited;

— the €55.6 million in additional new development funding which was provided for disability services in Budget 2024 is not adequate to deliver the measures contained in the Action Plan for Disability Services 2024-2026; and

— financial supports for people with disabilities and family carers are inadequate and fail minimum essential standards of living tests;

recognises the immense contribution to the common good of the unpaid work of family carers;

restates its commitment to supporting the fullest possible independent participation of people with disabilities in our society;

condemns the Government for its failure to introduce an updated National Carers' Strategy and its failure to modernise the provision of home support and personal assistance services for people with disabilities; and

calls on the Government to:

— deliver rights-based access to care for people with disabilities;

— set a date for the ratification of the UNCRPD Optional Protocol;

— outline a multi-annual funding plan for delivering the Action Plan Disability Services 2024-2026, and in particular extending independent living supports, access to therapies, and availability of respite services;

— increase access to services such as home support, personal assistance, day services, therapies, and community services for people with disabilities;

— introduce a comprehensive rights-based charter for family carers and update the National Carers' Strategy to provide the necessary steps across all Departments and in order to deliver the rights in the charter;

— directly support carers through increased provision of respite services;

— relax the Carer's Allowance means test and increase Disability Allowance, Invalidity Pension, Illness Benefit, Carer's Allowance and Benefit, and the annual Carer's Support Grant; and

— invest in special education and extend the fund for students with disabilities across further education and training.

For decades, the policy response when supporting people with disabilities in Ireland has reflected the medical model of disability, where people were seen as having something wrong with their body or their mind. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, UNCRPD, calls for a transformation of the policy response from the medical model to the social or human rights-based model of disability, where people with disabilities are no longer seen as medical objects to be institutionalised, but as individuals who are capable of living independently, being included in communities, and contributing to society as citizens with rights that are equal to any of the rest of us.

However, the progress in implementing these rights has been extremely slow, to say the least. A major issue in this regard is the failure to ratify the optional protocol of the UNCRPD. While Ireland ratified the UNCRPD into law in 2018, it was the last EU member state to do, some 11 years after the convention was first signed. We still have not ratified the optional protocol and we are one of three EU states that have not done so. If it was ratified, it would enable disabled people to apply directly to the United Nations if they feel their rights under the convention are not being respected. It would offer access to justice for rights holders where all available domestic remedies have been exhausted.

In June 2021, the disability matters committee heard from the Secretary General of the Department of children. Their stated aim was to ensure the ratification of the optional protocol without delay and as soon as possible. In fact, I think it was mentioned after the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act was signed into law. That was signed into law more than a year ago and the optional protocol has still not been ratified. We also heard from the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission, IHREC, and Gerard Quinn, the UN rapporteur, both of whom have said that there is nothing stopping the optional protocol from being ratified at any point. This needs to be done without delay. It should have been done long ago and there should be no more excuses.

Article 19 of the UNCRPD calls for independent living and inclusive life in the community for people with disabilities. The rights, supports and services are necessary to enable disabled people to achieve independent lives. They should be integrated and a part of their community. The delivery of appropriate supports and services to assist disabled people to achieve independent living is centrally important, but they are not available in the way they should be. We need to see more PA services so that people can live independently. We need to see accessible housing. We need to see assistive technology in those houses so that people can live alone there. We need to see accessible transport. We need to see all Government policies being disability-proofed to ensure that disabled people have access to those services.

Disabled people should be consulted on everything; it says so in the UNCRPD, but it is obvious that they are not. Most recently, this was evident with the Green Paper on disability reform. My colleague, Deputy Ó Laoghaire, and I met with a number of groups and individuals to discuss that, because people were very concerned about it. No one seemed to be consulted about the Green Paper; it simply landed on them without any prior warning or discussion. They have been worried about the impact that will have on their lives. That is symptomatic of the indifferent way in which disabled people are still being treated. It is no wonder that the current supports and services that are provided are far from adequate.

The disability capacity review shone a light on the large gaps in service provision, but evidence from previous budget allocations for disability services from this Government does not fill me with confidence that these gaps will be closed. There does not seem to be an appetite or focus from the Government to deliver the additional funding that is needed. In budget 2024, the Government allocated €64.1 million for new measures, but the disability capacity review explains clearly that disability services will need at least €80 million to €90 million in additional resources every year.

When the State fails to deliver on its responsibilities, the onus regularly falls back on families. It is estimated that family carers in Ireland number in excess of half a million and they save the State an estimated €20 billion each and every year. They do incredible work, but our family carers frequently feel forgotten, ignored and taken for granted.

The national carers' strategy was published in 2012. It sets out 42 actions to improve lives of family carers and those for whom they care. The programme for Government in 2020 contained a commitment to progress, review and update the national carers' strategy. Like so many other commitments from the Government, however, this has not materialised. People with disabilities and carers deserve better. I want to comment on what the Taoiseach said on a programme on Virgin Media yesterday evening around carers. He clearly has absolutely no understanding of what family carers actually do. He indicated that he would care for family members if he had to. Yes, he would pay for care for family members because he is in a position to pay for family carers on the wages that he earns. Most family carers are not - they are financially struggling to make ends meet and encounter additional costs in relation to the care they provide.

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