Mark Wall (Kildare South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I congratulate the Leas-Cheann Comhairle on his new role and wish him the very best. I also congratulate the Minister on her new role. As Labour Party spokesperson on children and disabilities, I look forward to working with her constructively during this term. I thank her for her engagement to date. Obviously, the waiting lists referred to in this debate are something we have to tackle, and that Government especially has to tackle because behind every one of those numbers on the waiting list is a family and somebody who needs help. They are the people who we have to help. As I said, I look forward to engaging with the Minister over the next period.

The first area I want to speak about today is employment, which the Minister referenced. As she said, according to the census of 2022, only 49% of people with disabilities of working age in Ireland are in employment. That is compared to almost 71% of those without disabilities. That is a shocking disability employment gap of 21.5%. Among disabled people, the unemployment rate is higher among people with an intellectual disability at almost 30%. I cannot begin to tell the Minister the number of times mothers and fathers of adult children have contacted me to highlight this, and I am sure it is the same in her office. She stated in her contribution that the new national disability strategy is an early priority for her and a key strategy as well. However, we are still talking about a matter of months before it will be published. We really need to see something as regards employment in that strategy. I look forward to engaging with the Minister on it. As she said, it will be a very important document, but it will be an important document for all those who need help at this stage regarding employment.

The second issue I want to raise relates to Sensational Kids, which is in my area of Kildare South. I recently met with the CEO of Sensational Kids, Ms Karen Leigh, who brought me around the national child development centre they propose to build in Kildare town, which is to be a state-of-the-art facility to support more than 300 children per week and provide 13,000 therapy sessions annually that children with additional needs so desperately need. That includes occupational therapy, OT, speech and language and psychological assessments.

There are already more than 2,000 children waiting for this new facility to open, 90% of whom are on HSE waiting lists. As the Minister knows, that is still in blocks in Kildare town, which is a disgrace. The development has come to an abrupt halt due to the withholding of funding from the Department of Justice through the immigrant investor programme. I ask the Minister to work with her colleagues to ensure this national child development centre is built as quickly as possible in Kildare town. I understand that a capital investment application has been made to the HSE. This project needs to get off the ground. The centre is needed by so many people, not just in Kildare South but throughout the State. I ask the Minister and her colleagues, on behalf of the children and families who need their help most, that they provide this help in the quickest possible time.

In the Seanad, I raised the issue of assessment of need in my own area of CHO 7 time and time again. There are currently 4,272 children waiting for an assessment of need for more than one year while 1,103 are waiting between six and 12 months. As if children are not waiting long enough, the average time for the CDNT waiting list is more than three years in CHO 7. The term used time and time again regarding these children is “early intervention”. By not providing early intervention, we are missing a key opportunity to support children during their development, risking further developmental issues and indeed pain for their family. We have all heard of families paying massive amounts for private assessment and therapies. The programme for Government provides a commitment for a children’s therapies grant fund for evidence-based therapies. Is this something that parents can apply for to fund private therapies? It would be a very welcome measure for many families. It will have come too late for some but would be very welcome for others, given the many thousands of euro that many families are committed to paying already.

I also wanted to touch on transport. It is an issue other colleagues have raised. There are ongoing issues in accessing transport for people who have disabilities. One of the biggest barriers is to those in rural areas. I welcome the fact that Rural Link services are making a difference. We need to see more of them. In Suncroft, County Kildare, a new Rural Link route is being proposed to deliver six services a day. I am dealing with people with disabilities for whom this would be life changing because they could access the bigger towns like Newbridge, the train stations and so on. The issues of rural transport are connected with disability issues. I hope the Minister will work with us to ensure that these services can happen for those who need them most.

I spoke the last day about special schools, which have been mentioned today. In Kildare South we have an issue around a special school that was promised by the Minister when she was Minister for Education. She said it would be located in the constituency during a Seanad debate. It is currently located in Naas in Kildare North. There are ambitions for that school to be located in Kildare South. When I questioned the Minister on it, she stated that the need was actually in Kildare South rather than in Naas where the school is currently located. I ask her to work with me once again to ensure that the school can be located in Kildare South. It is already full and is doing great work. I wish the management and staff well. However, we need a school that is functioning and has places in Kildare South, where, as the Minister identified when she was Minister for Education, there is a need for a special school.

The Minister mentioned the voluntary sector and the section 39 workers. We all know in this House that without section 39 workers, the disability sector would fall down. I welcome the fact that she has mentioned additional pay for those workers and look forward to engaging with her to ensure that section 39 workers get the pay they deserve. Finally, as a member of the Oireachtas autism committee, the cost of disability was something we discussed time and time again. There are varying costs associated with disability, as the Minister said. It is something we need to get hold of and the Government needs to address. I will discuss it with the Minister over the coming months and years to ensure the cost of disability is recognised by Government and those who need payments actually get the payments they deserve.

See this speech in context