Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

Services for disabled people are either threadbare or non-existent. These are services in areas like education, healthcare, social care and transport that are not optional extras. They are services that disabled people are entitled to as a right. If, eventually, they are provided, it is only ever after a fight. Funding shortfalls, staffing shortfalls and lack of resources are the only guarantees. As highlighted. last night, "Prime Time" covered a crisis in a special school in Clondalkin, Scoil Mochua. Its patron, the Central Remedial Clinic, had been making up a funding shortfall between what the school actually cost to run and what the school receives from the Department of Education. That gap is an enormous €120,000. Parents in that school are now being told they need to raise €120,000 in funds every single year. These are parents who are caring for children who have complex needs. They are exhausted and now they are expected to become full-time fundraisers. It is a case of asking parents to bail out a State that is awash with cash because it will not properly fund schools. It is welcome that there will apparently be engagement with Scoil Mochua now, but Scoil Mochua is not the only special school in difficulty and it should not take a "Prime Time" programme for an engagement to begin with these schools. Many constituencies do not even have a special school, including my own constituency, Cork South-West.

The special schools alliance will give a presentation in the Oireachtas later today outlining major issues with access to therapists and special schools. I hope there will be many Government representatives there. We all know that this Government is in its final days. In the election campaign, the coalition partners will have to defend their record on disability. Given the way in which disabled people of all ages have been systematically failed, I really do not know how they will do that. According to the ESRI, their budget will push more disabled people into poverty. Nearly 13,500 children are waiting for appointments with children's disability network teams and personal transport grants that Fine Gael and Labour axed more than a decade ago have still to be replaced. I could go on. The Government has wasted opportunity after opportunity to improve the lives of disabled people. The litany of failure is shameful.

Tomorrow, the Social Democrats will launch our disability policy. In it, we will make clear that we will not go into any future government unless there is a senior Ministry for disability. We clearly need a full Minister for disability so the interests of disabled people are actually represented at the Cabinet table, because they have been absent for far too long. This is a dealbreaker for the Social Democrats. We will also announce plans about how we will resource services, address staffing shortages and provide oversight and accountability. Does the Minister agree with the ESRI's analysis that the Government's budget will push more disabled people into poverty? Will he tell us more about the engagement with Scoil Mochua and whether funding is there? Does he agree that we need a Minister for disability to finally get the political will that is needed to address the many issues and shortcomings in our services?

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