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

It is essential for the optional protocol to the UN CRPD to be ratified. As the Minister indicated in his response, the Government agreed to do so on 8 October. While that is welcome, October is in the dying days of this Dáil. Nobody expects it to last until after Christmas. I do not have to tell people here that those who live their lives with a disability need further support, support that the Government does not deliver. We all deal with that; every single day we get people in our constituency offices.

Several times in this Chamber, I have raised the issue of Le Chéile national school in Limerick city. That school has significant needs. It is a school that caters for 186 children in an area the Pobal deprivation index has described as extremely disadvantaged. It is a school where the staff estimate that 72% of the children have an additional need, with 38% of the children having more than one need. The fantastic staff have been pleading for over two years with various Departments for additional resources to support these children but at every turn the door has been closed. This is a school with significant disability and additional needs but it cannot get the genuine supports it needs. The response I got from the Minister two weeks ago referred me back to the HSE. The school has written confirmation from the HSE that it will not fund any of the places or supports it needs. It has been pushed from the Department of Education to the HSE to the Minister's Department. The problem is these kids are not getting access to the services they need. They are sitting there in a brand-new shiny school delivered a number of years ago under the regeneration programme with no supports put in for some of the most complex needs.

In the short time remaining to me I want to mention some of the fantastic disability service providers in Limerick, including Dóchas and Headway, which do incredible work on a shoestring. They should not constantly need to seek support through fundraisers. They should be provided with adequate resources to do their important work.

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