Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank my colleague Deputy Pauline Tully for bringing this important motion to the House. It is a real shame that she was compelled to do so but this is what happens when we have a Government that turns its face away from citizens who need support. I acknowledge all the section 39 workers who gathered outside Mayo County Council yesterday. One after the other, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael councillors stood up to say how absolutely disastrous the way section 39 workers are being treated with regard to pay parity was, and how that was causing problems in service delivery, recruitment and retention in County Mayo. They were obviously supported by SIPTU and Fórsa. The Minister has a responsibility to stop the forthcoming strike. These workers are being forced to go on strike and he needs to sort it because people all over Mayo, including vulnerable families, will be left with no support while these workers are forced to go on strike. It is absolutely incredible that he has reneged on the promise he made to these workers.

The Government went to great lengths to produce a disability capacity review which, since its publication in 2021, has gathered dust on the proverbial shelf. Of course, the review told us what every one of us here knows from our constituency work, which is that people with disabilities are being left behind and there is a significant level of unmet need that the Government will not address. In my constituency, I have seen the real impact of the Government's austerity on people with disabilities. For example, there is the case of the 72-year-old lady from Mayo with a spinal injury, who has to go to Clarinbridge, County Galway to get respite care, a distance of more than 200 km. I have case after case. What about Geraldine, the lone parent with four year girls? Her second eldest is 13. Niamh has autism, epilepsy and type 1 diabetes. She requires six daily injections, all administered by her mother. Geraldine applied for respite services in February. She is still on the waiting list. She looked into private homecare support but was told no nurses were available. She was advised to place an advertisement on Midwest Radio to employ her own nurse. That is the help that these people are being given when trying to look after people with disabilities. The Minister should be absolutely ashamed of himself.

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