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

I welcome everybody in the Public Gallery and the disability activists who have joined us this evening for the two-hour debate. I also thank all colleagues who spoke in favour of this motion. I feel a little bit insulted by Deputy Sean Sherlock's suggestion that some of my colleagues who made short speeches did so only for social media. I would like him to know that every one of them would have liked to have spoken for much longer on this issue if the time had been available. When we have over 30 Deputies in the party, we must try to divide out the time. It is an issue that has been raised in everyone's constituency, so every one of them could have brought up issues. I was disappointed by that comment.

I am conscious that the focus has been on many wide and varied disabilities in tonight's discussion, including on the children's disability network teams, CDNTs, and on children's additional needs. There are blind people, people who are visually impaired, people who are deaf, people who are hard of hearing, people with physical disabilities, people who are wheelchair users, people with an intellectual disability, amputees, people who are autistic, and people who have mental health issues. The need is very wide and varied. In many cases, unfortunately, those needs are not being met.

The motion is comprehensive because it reflects what is in the disability capacity review. It is reflective of the unmet need identified there and addressed in the action plan but unfortunately not funded sufficiently to address all of the actions in that action plan. I want to see that action plan actioned. I want to see those services and supports delivered for people. Disabled people have a right to live independently. They have a right to have the support to live independently in this country. There has been some reference made to residential places. The action plan committed to 900 new residential places. It committed to 500 people being moved out of congregated settings and to 260 of the under-65s being moved out of nursing homes. However, when we look at the budget announcement only 70 new residential places are being planned for the coming year, and there are no specific figures for how many of those will be going to people who are currently in congregated settings or in nursing homes.

Reference was also made to the many disabled adults who are living with aged parents and who are entitled to their own home as well. This is all around planning the accessible houses for people with a physical disability and planning to have the supports in place for the person with an intellectual disability. I come across many people with intellectual disabilities who are on the council housing lists and are often the last to be housed because the supports are not being put in by the HSE. The houses are there and they do not necessarily need any sort of accessibility adaptions made but they do need support to live independently. This is not happening, or it is not happening fast enough, and is not happening in conjunction with the local authority. That needs to be addressed. For people to live independently they need personal assistance hours and they need additional home support hours. A total of 800,000 additional personal assistance hours were committed to in the action plan as well as 110,000 home support hours, but only 20,000 additional personal assistance hours were announced this year and 40,000 additional home hours. Again, more is required to enable people to live independently. I am aware that it is not just about having the house and having the support to live in that house, one also must have the transport, the access to education, and the access to employment. It is an all-round package and it needs to be addressed.

I welcome the announcement by the Government of the intention to ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities optional protocol. It should have been done already. The Oireachtas Joint Committee on Disability Matters has been calling for this since the committee was set up. Indeed, every organisation has been calling for it as well. There was nothing preventing its ratification, especially since the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) (Amendment) Act was passed in 2022. I am concerned because we are hearing talk of a general election. I do not know if the process, which has begun, continues whether or not there is an election. I would love to know exactly what the date is for the ratification of the optional protocol.

I must mention the Indecon cost-of-disability report. It confirms there is a significant additional cost associated with disability. The extra cost is a key factor in effectuating poverty among disabled people. The social welfare payment is being increased by €12 but I believe it needs to be increased by more than €12. There needs to be a cost-of-disability payment also to address the large costs faced by disabled people due, in many cases, to the lack of vital supports and services in the community.

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