Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael)

I thank all Members for their contributions to this discussion. As Minister of State with responsibility for disabilities, I have witnessed at first hand the passion and commitment that disabled people bring to advocating for a more inclusive Ireland, and for continually highlighting the need to provide more and better services. The Government and I are very conscious of the struggles endured by disabled people and their families and loved ones. We are firmly of the belief that disabled people should be able to access the right services, at the right time, within their own communities, and they should be supported to live independent lives with the same access to opportunity as all other citizens. That is why the National Human Rights Strategy for Disabled People 2025-2030 is so important.

Time and again, disabled people have shared their strong view of “nothing about us without us”. That is why engagement with disabled people and their representative organisations was key in the development of the national strategy, which included 34 focus groups, five town hall events, almost 500 responses to a national survey and more than 80 written submissions received by the Department. Disabled people and their representative organisations have given generously of their time in the development of this document. I give my heartfelt thanks to them.

This strategy would not be so ambitious without their input and determination. Thanks to that input, the National Human Rights Strategy for Disabled People 2025-2030 reflects the lived experience of the very people it is designed to support. This experience is essential to ensure that everything that we aim to achieve in the months and years ahead makes a real difference to individuals and their families. From these engagements, we learned that the key issues impacting the day-to-day lives of disabled people include access to a good education, access to good jobs, reliable and accessible public transport, and the necessary supports to live independently and healthily in their communities.

The scope of ambition of the strategy fulfils the Government’s commitment to progressively realising Ireland's implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in ways that will have the maximum benefit for disabled people. In the context of disability, human rights are grounded in the equality, dignity and choice of disabled people. This requires the structures and cultures we exist within to be conducive to the full, effective and inclusive participation of disabled people. Realising these rights requires an institutional, environmental and attitudinal alignment with the UNCRPD that comprehensively covers all areas of a person’s life.

To achieve the ambition we so clearly set out, we will need stakeholders to hold us - the Government - to account, and tell us what is working well and what needs to be changed. There are many good things happening in the area of disability and incredible work being done in communities across Ireland, and we want to build on this. However, many disabled people rightly believe their needs are not being met and that we need new ways of doing things.

For example, we continue to recruit therapists from a range of disciplines for our CDNTs and our special schools, but we know there are not enough. That is why we must also invest in third level places for therapists, in alternative therapies and in initiatives like autism assistance dogs and Variety Ireland's recycle mobility trikes, which are so important. While the Government is investing in a massive house building programme, not enough homes are being provided for people with disabilities. We know that when appropriate housing is provided, in places like Glensheen Court in Ennis or at Killorglin in County Kerry, which I recently visited, it makes a massive difference to the lives of disabled people and their families, particularly elderly parents who know their child will have a lifelong home to call their own.

We know that disabled people, for a variety of reasons, are less likely to have a job. Organisations like the Together Academy show that many people with a disability who want to work can, but only if the right supports are in place. Disabled people are often prevented from enjoying the same opportunities as other citizens across a range of areas, including education, transport and participation in community life. This is a reality and a lived experience that we must acknowledge, but it is not a reality that I, as Minister of State with responsibility for disability, accept.

We must change how we do things and give disabled people the same rights and opportunities as every other citizen. That is what the strategy is about and why it is so important. The strategy calls out where we need to do better in areas such as increasing respite places, the provision of more day services, growing the number of Irish sign language interpreters and harnessing the power of assistive technology. It highlights how we must deliver supports to employers and disabled people to remove barriers to work, conduct walkability audits to make our towns and cities accessible and remove barriers that prevent disabled people from enjoying public spaces like parks, galleries and museums or from partaking in cultural events.

It falls on each Department and each Minister to make sure that happens. No one Department or Minister is responsible; we all are. To ensure the commitments outlined in the strategy are met, robust delivery and monitoring structures have been co-designed with stakeholders to ensure oversight and accountability. There is a strong focus on collaboration, and delivery will be underpinned by programme plans of action every two years. These programme plans will set out how the key priority actions under each commitment will be delivered, who will be responsible for their delivery and the timeframe for delivery.

At the highest level, the Cabinet committee on disability will oversee the strategy, and all groups responsible for delivery will be accountable to this Cabinet committee. The delivery and monitoring committee is central to implementation and will meet twice a year. It is responsible for overseeing and directing the delivery of the strategy. This group will be chaired by the Taoiseach, underscoring the top-level commitment to progressing delivery. The newly formed disability unit in the Department of the Taoiseach will play a key role in co-ordinating efforts across Departments that are leading on pillars and will support collaborative delivery.

The pillar groupings will comprise a mix of Departments, agencies and stakeholders working together to identify and deliver on the best course of action to achieve the stated ambitions. The inclusion of disabled people themselves is an integral part of this new approach, with the setting-up of a disabled persons organisation group where members will sit alongside Departments in pillar groupings, ensuring the representative voice of disabled people is directly integrated into decision-making. The chair of the DPO group will participate in the delivery and monitoring committee. The commitments within the strategy and the monitoring and implementation structures designed to support them were developed through the large-scale national public consultation and the close co-design with disability stakeholders, ensuring the resulting strategy will make meaningful, transformative progress and will realise its ambitions.

I take this opportunity to thank colleagues across government for their commitment in developing this strategy, which we must view only as a beginning, an excellent starting point from which we must all continue to build to ensure the strategy’s full implementation and effectiveness. In fact, it is the cross-government framework of the strategy that provides the foundation upon which each of the five pillars is built, and it will therefore be cross-government collaboration that will be the prerequisite for the strategy’s successful implementation.

The publication of this national human rights strategy for disabled people is an important achievement in the first year of this Government. Developed in partnership with disabled people, the strategy represents a significant step forward for the realisation of disability rights in Ireland. The Government has promised a step change in the delivery of disability services in Ireland. This strategy, and its built-in enforcement mechanisms, is the blueprint for how we will get there. It is only by matching our words and promises with action that we can earn the trust of disabled people. That is why we recognise this strategy as the beginning of a journey together and not the final destination.

See this speech in context