Cormac Devlin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle and welcome him back. It is good to be back in the Chamber. I welcome the opportunity to examine the Government's National Human Rights Strategy for Disabled People 2025–2030. This strategy will only matter if it changes the daily lives of people with a disability. As the Minister said in her opening remarks, those challenges are there to be met. The strategy must turn rights into real solutions, including accessible ramps, usable routes and services people can depend on.

A few years ago, when I was cathaoirleach of Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown County Council, I spent a day using a wheelchair with Seán O’Kelly, a disability activist. On that day we travelled on the DART from Dalkey to Blackrock, and I saw how quickly independence gets negotiated away. We had to give notice to use a ramp to get onto the DART. We discovered that two wheelchair users cannot board the same bus and that someone with a buggy impacts on a person with a disability accessing the bus, and we wrestled with heavy internal doors just to reach a bathroom marked "accessible". All the while, I experienced what Seán called "being blanked" on the street. That day taught me one thing, which is that spontaneity should not require 24 hours' notice. This strategy can change that, if we deliver.

With regard to the public realm, walkability audits will be carried out in every town and city of over 5,000 people, producing fix-lists for crossings, kerbs, pavements and street clutter. Every local authority will appoint a full-time access and inclusion officer, a named person whom people can contact. That is accountability that people can ring.

With regard to transport and mobility, we need less pre-booking and more travelling. Advance notice requirements on rail and bus must fall year by year. Local Link should expand where transport is thin. We need a pathway to 100% wheelchair-accessible fleets. Personal mobility schemes must also work in practice, with a modernised disabled drivers and passengers framework and a fit-for-purpose adaptation scheme.

On independent living, we must move faster on decongregation and ensure housing follows universal design. We need a national policy on personal assistance so supports are reliable, portable and rights based.

With regard to children and youth mental health, families should not be stuck in an obstacle course. A single front door for assessments of need and therapies, shorter waits and a single access point across primary care, disability and CAMHS must be delivered.

On education and work, we need to build inclusive learning and open a stronger pipeline into the public service and the private sector. Disabled people are not a niche workforce; they are part of Ireland's workforce.

I thank the Minister and her officials for their engagement, particularly their direct involvement with the strategy, but delivery is the real test and I have a number of requests. I ask the Minister to publish the first programme plan, with timelines and KPIs, confirm when access and inclusion officers will be in place and publish the walkability audit schedule, set annual targets to reduce advance notice on transport and report operator compliance, and expand the Irish sign language interpreter pipeline and guarantee access in emergencies and healthcare.

Oversight matters. The strategy promises biannual reporting to the Cabinet committee on disability. It would be good to see public dashboards so progress is transparent. The test is simply whether a person can move through their day without asking permission at every doorway and live with independence. Every citizen deserves no less.

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