Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle for the opportunity to mark a major milestone - the recent launch of Ireland's National Human Rights Strategy for Disabled People 2025-2030. It was fitting that we launched it in the Round Room in the Mansion House, the venue of the First Dáil, and it is here in the Chamber of the Thirty-fourth Dáil that, with the support of colleagues, some of the key aims and ambitions in the strategy will be actioned in the coming years.

I was really taken by the phrase used by David, one the participants in the awareness campaign for the national human rights strategy for disabled people. He said: "Listen to us instead of telling us what we need." For my part, this is at the very heart of what I want this strategy to be about, which is the aspirations, the ambitions and the lived experience of people with disabilities.

Every effort has been made to ensure people with disabilities steered, shaped and structured this strategy. There were focus groups, surveys, interviews and town hall meetings, online and in-person, throughout the country. Expert interviewers were also used to access the voices of people who are seldom heard from, such as children with disabilities and people with intellectual disabilities.

In some instances, people were able to communicate not just with mouth words but with facial expressions, body movements, sound and assistive technology. I know full well there are always means to communicate if we are truly prepared to listen and to hear. In reality, this strategy has come from the people who matter most: those who live every single day with disability.

After all of the consultation, what was identified? The top three issues were access to health and social care, having enough money to cover the extra costs related to disability, and being able to avail of and use public or private transportation easily. There is an unwavering focus in this strategy on clear and concrete actions which people with disabilities want prioritised, rather than just looking at it from an official and often siloed perspective. The objective is to look at issues from a whole-of-life perspective. As one disabled person brilliantly put it, “A person’s life is not divided into Government Departments." It is, therefore, fitting that the name given to this first ever national human rights strategy for disabled people was the name requested and promoted by people with disabilities themselves. They wanted a clear human rights focus in this strategy, beginning with the title. I know Shakespeare often mused, “What’s in a name?”, but I fundamentally believe, and agree with people with disabilities, that names, language and, in this instance, titles are important because they set the agenda and they carve out the vision we wish to achieve.

The strategy is structured around five core areas: inclusive learning and education; employment; independent living and active participation in society; well-being and health; and transport and mobility. I will briefly outline the ambition behind each of these areas. The first area, pillar 1, is inclusive learning and education. We have made progress in recent years in terms of education for people with additional needs. We have doubled the number of special classes to 3,500 and created 16 new special schools. We have over 22,000 special needs assistants and over 20,000 special education teachers. In total, that is more than 40,000 professionals dedicated to the area of working with young people with additional needs, but we need to do more. We absolutely need to do more. We know from OECD data that education gaps are at the root of persistent disability employment gaps. This pillar directly confronts that reality through starting early and staying the course. By 2030, we want to see significantly improved access, greater transition supports across all education levels and, ultimately, higher rates of achievement for disabled learners.

Pillar 2 is employment. This is about closing the disability employment gap decisively. We are committed to removing systemic barriers and creating real, sustainable opportunities for disabled people to earn, to contribute and to thrive in the workforce.

The next area identified in the strategy is pillar 3, independent living and active participation in society This puts independence, choice and autonomy at the centre of policy. Disabled people must have the right and the means to live where and how they choose, to participate fully in their communities and to lead lives of their own making. That means better access to housing, support services and opportunities for engagement in culture, sport and civic life.

Pillar 4, well-being and health, will improve access to inclusive, integrated health services from early intervention to mental health supports to health promotion. This goal is clear: better outcomes, higher quality of life, and services that empower disabled people to live fully and to live well.

The final pillar, transport and mobility, is about one of the most critical enablers of independence, namely, mobility. According to the 2022 census, difficulties with transport and leisure participation are the most common challenges faced by disabled people. We will eliminate those barriers. By 2030, disabled people must be able to move freely and confidently, whether by bus, train, car or foot, in environments designed with inclusion in mind and policy will be shaped in full consultation with disabled people themselves.

As a country, as a republic and as a society, we must do better for people with disabilities. Tá sé thar am dúinn dul i ngleic leis na deacrachtaí agus na dúshláin a bhaineann le míchumas. Tugann an straitéis náisiúnta um chearta an duine do dhaoine faoi mhíchumas an deis dúinn tús nua a chur chun cinn. Guthanna comhionanna, gníomhartha comhionanna, todhchaí chomhionann; equal voices, equal actions, equal futures - this is the motto chosen by disabled people themselves for this new strategy. Their message is clear: they want to be treated the same as everybody else. Not differently, not better and not worse but the same as everyone else - equal voices, equal actions, equal futures. Time and again, people with disabilities have shared with me their strong view of “nothing about us without us.” How right they are. People with disabilities have been at the heart of developing this strategy. They have carved and shaped every aspect of this strategy. That is a first in this country and it is an important first. I am determined that not just should they carve out the strategy, but that people with disabilities should be at the heart of its implementation. As a consequence, people with disabilities will sit on the various implementation groups for the strategy. That is as it should be. The Taoiseach, Deputy Micheál Martin, will also chair the delivery committee, which will report to him every six months. This is in conjunction with the dedicated unit within the Department of the Taoiseach, the Committee on Disability Matters and, of course, the implementation groups. This is where the accountability will be, ultimately through an Taoiseach meeting every six months for updates, reports and progress. The National Human Rights Strategy for Disabled People 2025-2030 can be a game-changer for disabled people in this country. I look forward to working with each one of you in this Chamber and, indeed, everyone outside of this Chamber, to make sure it does what it sets out to do: equal voices, equal actions, equal futures.

Ruairí Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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In fairness, I do not think anybody will have any major issue when they read the National Human Rights Strategy for Disabled People 2025-2030. There is nothing wrong with the names and there is nothing wrong with the pillars. Like the Minister, anyone who has spoken to disability groups, or those who have had to deal with the realities of disabilities, will speak about all those particular issues that impact. We are talking about the cost of disability, the inability to get social care and healthcare, the added cost related to that and, obviously, transport. We all know it is an absolute disaster in relation to school. Even where circumstances and situations are dealt with, at this moment in time, that causes a huge level of stress for families. With disabilities we can sometimes over-concentrate on children because of the huge failures there are. We have to recognise that it impacts more widely. We are looking for a framework that will provide for people from cradle to grave.

The reality is that we need to see the action plan. The Cabinet subcommittee on disability and the disability unit in the Taoiseach's office are fine, as is the strategy. It will be about the action plans and how the Government is held to account and how it holds itself to account. I think the Minister would accept that there have been failures, particularly from the point of view of parents. Talking about children, there have been huge issues in recent times and this comes across the Minister's desk. It is fair to say we need to deal with the child protection issues, whether that is in the cases of Kyran Durnin or Daniel Aruebose. I think we are all glad his body was found, but we need to make sure the review mechanisms and the proper guidelines and protocols are in place and that they are adhered to. It is not only about investigating these cases; it is about making sure no more cases happen.

I also raise the issue of specialist public health nurses, which were planned for previously. The idea is that they would engage with families and screening would take place and if it is the case that families need additional supports, they should get them. Everyone was taken by Gillian Sherratt and Stephen Morrison, the parents of Harvey Morrison. We were lucky to have them at our think-in recently. While the Taoiseach has spoken about complex and clinical issues, I think we will all accept that there have been failures in dealing with children as regards spina bifida and scoliosis and probably across the board in Children's Health Ireland, CHI. We need to have some sort of plans about delivering what is required. I was very taken by what Stephen said. He said children, in particular his son and others, were being failed from birth and even before it. That should not be possible.

I recognise there was huge engagement with those with disabilities, but I have received complaints from Physical Impairment Ireland and Voice of Vision Impairment about the lack of engagement with them. We need to make sure it happens because it is about those who have to live the reality. They need the plans and strategies to be based on their requirements. We were lucky that at this think-in we also had Cara Darmody and her father, Mark.

There are huge questions about the assessment of need, AON, legislation. It does not relate specifically to the Minister's brief but it does have an impact on huge issues. What will happen? There are proposed changes. At the end of June, 16,593 children had not been dealt with in relation to an AON. Looking towards the end of the year, the figure now is 23,903. This will not work at all. The children's disability network teams, CDNTs, are missing staff from positions. Some 445.3 positions are unfilled and even if they are filled, that will not deal with the requirements of those waiting. On in-school therapies, the Minister said we are only talking about 45 schools being served this year but no one has been appointed to a position yet.

I could go on for considerable time. No one will doubt that. We need to see action.

Claire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein)
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I welcome the opportunity to speak on this strategy and I hope we will see quick and thorough implementation. I was struck by the word "choice" on page 12. It is one of the values that underpins this strategy, but the Government must create the spaces where people have a choice. It is up to the Minister and the Government to ensure there are choices. For example, today people with disabilities do not have choices in education. Their parents typically ring around several schools to try to get their children a school place, which they deserve, and they take what they get. That should not be the case.

Again, there is no choice of transport for many people. The mobility allowance and the motorised transport grant have been gone since 2013. The primary medical certificate has been reviewed. The disabled drivers and disabled passengers scheme has not been fit for purpose for a very long time. A new scheme is now being developed by the Department of Transport. Everything is far too slow. We still have a situation, particularly in rural areas, where people cannot get access to the blue badge or the primary medical certificate. They are totally isolated and in rural areas they are being robbed of their independence. This has a huge impact on them and their families and on their mental health and well-being.

Similarly, there is no choice in housing, because much of the time, people cannot access accessible housing. It is not being built. We should have far more ambition in housing, be it for older people or our disabled citizens, so that they have access to living independently. We should have far more little villages and community areas with housing, where people can live together, but independently and have their own space. We should be developing much more of that housing, but we are not.

Employment is one of the five key pillars. We are one of the worst, if not the worst, in Europe for employment for disabled people. We need to look at the supports provided, especially by the Department of Social Protection. We need to look at what needs to be fixed and changed to ensure more people can gain employment where they so wish.

Another key pillar is inclusive learning and education. Hundreds of children today are without an appropriate special class place. What a shame it is in our country in 2025 that children are sitting at home today who should be in school but are not. In some cases they are not in school because the building has not been finished on time. That should not be the case. This strategy needs to be implemented and it needs to be done quickly.

David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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I was at an event about mental health a number of years ago where a presentation was given by an expert in the field who works on the ground. The person put up a photograph of a car that was held up, not by four wheels, but by plans and policy documents. She was illustrating the point that policy documents and plans are not in short supply. We have any number of them in mental health and the same goes for disability. We had a disability strategy that was never properly funded. Her point was that the car will not go anywhere without resources and that we have to look at people's experiences. Regarding children with disabilities, parents have to struggle almost every day to get the basics for their children. We saw it in recent months when trying to get access to appropriate school places for children with disabilities. Many of them still do not have one and we are tabling a motion on that today. A number of families in Waterford struggled. Additional classes were put on in Waterford schools, but some of those schools are still waiting for the classrooms - the physical space - or teachers.

I am dealing with two cases at the moment of two young men, Joshua who is 18, and Nathan who is 18. They are waiting for access to day care services. They are early school leavers and they are being told they cannot get a date for when their placements will start. This is the response from the HSE.

I must inform you however that it is unlikely that we will be in a position to commence services before the end of September. This is due to a number of factors i.e. the delay in agreeing the funding required; the large numbers of school leavers this year and difficulties we have had in identifying suitable locations for all applicants which required two new settings; and a staff recruitment process.

Through no fault of their own, those parents and young school leavers who are now young adults cannot get access to those day services because of staffing problems, because funding was not released and because the planning was not done. It is the same across the board. We can have all the plans we want and they can be wonderful and the words can be wonderful, but the resources must be made available. I have seen it in my constituency in Waterford with parents and children, especially those with disabilities.

I will mention before I finish one young campaigner, Karl Cretzan, who has cerebral palsy and is wheelchair bound. He advocates day and night, not only for himself but for people with disabilities about public transport and other areas. What people like Karl, Nathan and Joshua want to see is, yes plans, but also resources and delivery. Unfortunately, we have far too many plans and not enough resources or delivery.

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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My colleagues have summarised the situation well. Plans are well and good, but we need to see fundamental change on the ground. I will share a few personal stories from Donegal where, unfortunately, the failure to recruit a range of professionals has led to appalling outcomes for children with disabilities and their parents. Right now, for children who require psychiatric assistance and medication, it is not available to those who have an intellectual disability. It is just not there.

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If this child had medication, they would be able to have a manageable life at home. Without the medication, it is, sadly, a nightmare for the family. I spoke to a family who are completely isolated from social events and their wider family. They are in such a crisis and they can get no help, no psychiatric assistance and there is none going to be there for the foreseeable future.

There is another almost identical situation with another family. It was two separate families, two separate meetings, and they have had to lock off access to their surrounding family who live nearby because they cannot get respite support. I cannot understand how we end up in this situation. I have said this so often over the years. If you ask people whether they would mind their money being spent on children with disabilities, I do not know anybody who would. Imagine being locked in your own home and being unable to leave because your child is disabled. It is going be an awful situation where extended family will be physically attacked and nobody can help, either with psychiatric assistance or respite. That is the reality on the ground and it has to change.

Natasha Newsome Drennan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Sinn Fein)
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For 18 years, before being elected as a TD for Carlow and Kilkenny, I worked as a carer for people with disabilities, supporting them to live their fullest lives possible. The people I worked for are the salt of the earth. As many of us know, working as a carer is so much more than just a job. We grow incredibly close to those we care for. That is why it has pained me so much to watch those with disabilities and those who support and care for them being continually let down by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. From the cradle to the grave, they are being failed. Children requiring an assessment of need are left waiting for years to be seen. Parents are forced to watch as their children suffer, denied the correct supports at schools. They are left watching as their whole family bears the mental and emotional strain. What will this Government say in ten or 15 years' time to children who are failed on its watch? What became painfully clear to me as someone working with people with disabilities is that this Government does not plan for these people to grow old. The Government does not plan adequate care for people with disabilities as they age into their 50s, 60s and 70s. It does not plan for who will care for these people when their ageing parents pass on. There is no plan for how to ensure that these parents and caregivers get significant respite. That is the hallmark of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael in government - little to no long-term planning. Let us be clear: this lies squarely with the Government. Issues will not be sorted if people on the Government benches continue to sit on their hands.

Mark Wall (Kildare South, Labour)
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I welcome the opportunity to discuss the national human rights strategy for disabled people. Of course, it has long been awaited and many disability organisations have been campaigning for its publication. It is the first strategy since Ireland ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which was way back in 2018. I welcome the fact, as the Minister herself said, that the strategy has taken a whole-of-government approach to progressing the rights of people with disabilities. This is an acknowledgement that disability is not just the concern or responsibility of one Department but extends to many more, including health, transport, education and housing. However, we need to see the ambition from the Government to match the implementation of this strategy. This can be a turning point in Ireland's treatment of disabled citizens but every Department must step up to the plate. Disabled people face many challenges, including long waiting lists for services, in particular therapies and supports, high levels of unemployment and poverty, inaccessible transport and a lack of supports for independent living.

I acknowledge the strategy is based on five pillars that seek to address these barriers. I will address some of these, as a number of concerns have been raised by disabled people and their families with my office over the last number of years. We have recently seen that many local authorities, including the council in my own county of Kildare, have paused new applications for the housing adaptation grant scheme. As we all know, this scheme has been key in supporting older people and people with disabilities to continue to live in their own communities. If this Government is serious about supporting and enabling independent living, then we need to see an increase in this grant, with funding to the levels that are needed by each local authority to meet the demand that is there and to allow people with disabilities to continue to live in their own homes.

Special education is an issue that I have raised with the Minister previously. It is a massive issue for many people who come to me and, I am sure, everybody in this House. It is one, in my opinion, that the Government has failed to act on and get a handle on. My office is constantly in contact with worried parents who are struggling to find a school place for their child with additional needs. Even if they do get a place, it is extremely difficult to get school transport to allow the child with additional needs to get to their school. I have been working with a number of families trying to get a school place for their children with additional needs. I have been in contact with the National Council for Special Education, NCSE, but I have as yet failed to get a meaningful response from that organisation.

I welcome the announcement today by the Minister that school place scheduling will begin four months earlier than has happened previously. I ask the Minister now, and will ask the other Minister later, whether this will allow parents to ring the NCSE, take the burden of 40 or 50 phone calls from them and allow, as I have always said, the NCSE to do the work and empower the SENOs, a point I have raised previously on many occasions with the Minister.

I recently had the pleasure of visiting St. Mark's Special School in Newbridge. What a wonderful school and what wonderful pupils and teachers in a wonderful setting for all those who use the facility. However, we in Kildare South have been promised another special school for a long time. I have raised this issue previously with the Minister and her predecessors. She will be aware that the special school that is there has been located in Naas, which is actually in Kildare North and not Kildare South. As the Minister said to me in a previous contribution, the demand is in Kildare South. That is why there should be a school in Kildare South. Is there an update on providing a school in Kildare South, where the demand is? Many parents are still travelling huge distances to bring their loved ones to school each day. It is causing serious issues for families day in and day out.

Regarding school transport, I am sure that, like my office, the Minister's office has seen a huge demand for school transport over the last weeks and months. This is particularly the case for those with special school needs. I am dealing with one family in Dunlavin, on the Kildare border, who cannot get a school place for their loved one. The problem is that they got the school place but they cannot now get the school transport needed to bring that loved one to school each day. This issue is replicated time and again. The Minister mentioned in her opening contribution the need to resolve this once and for all for people with disabilities. We need to ensure that transport is not a barrier to their quality of life.

I also want to bring up the issue of employment that other colleagues and the Minister have also mentioned. I have dealt with this with a lot of families in Kildare and neighbouring counties over a long period. We need to incentivise employers to provide those places that work for families and those with disabilities. It has come too late for many that there is no employment for them. I welcome the fact that one of the pillars in this strategy is to do with employment. It is long overdue that we concentrate on providing the incentives to employers to allow those with disabilities to get a sustainable job close to their home. In this way they can gain confidence, social skills and the pleasure of working in a particular form of employment. This has been lacking for a long time and it needs to come through this strategy.

Of course, we in the Labour Party support the strategy. We believe that it is long overdue and that the people with a disability who live in this country have the right to have the respect shown to them day in and day out. This strategy is a chance to have that done, but all it will do is sit on a shelf unless the Government is serious about ensuring it is backed up by that cross-departmental involvement over the coming years. I look forward to working with the Minister, as she requested, on the pillars that she has mentioned today. She will not find the Labour Party wanting on those pillars if the Government is serious about helping those with a disability and giving them the dignity and respect they deserve day in, day out.

Marie Sherlock (Dublin Central, Labour)
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I very much welcome the fact we are having this debate today, and I very much welcome the words and intent in the national human rights strategy for disabled people. Of course, it is about the timelines and the resources, and we have yet to see any detail on these to implement and make good the fine words in the strategy. I want to raise a number of issues with the Minister. Her Department will have to take much more aggressive and leading role in effectively trying to make real, and make good on, these promises, some of them long-standing, to people with disabilities in this country.

My first point is with regard to the Department of Health. There are hundreds of vacancies, particularly in CDNTs throughout the country and in primary care. We heard the Minister say the places are there but that they cannot be filled and that we now need to do something else and focus the health budget on capital infrastructure. I do not think it is good enough that we are throwing in the towel on recruitment with regard to therapies for children with additional needs in this country. There are waiting lists of two, three or four years for psychology and occupational therapy, and it is not good enough that those children are left on waiting lists. The Government needs to do an awful lot more to ensure those places are filled.

My next point is on the Department of education and the Minister's previous portfolio. Sixteen CDNTs in the country do not have a special school in their catchment area. Summerhill CDNT in Dublin 1 in my constituency is one of these. This means no child in Dublin 1 will ever be at the top of any waiting list for a special school. They will always be down the list because they are not in the catchment area. That has to change.

With regard to the Department of further education and training, a wonderful system provided by the National Learning Network throughout the country provides specialist training to those persons, young adults in particular but adults of all ages, with a disability. Often they are people in very vulnerable situations. This year, the number of places in the City of Dublin ETB has been cut from 268 to 252. When we asked the question as to why this is happening, we were told the City of Dublin ETB effectively has to remain within its budget allocation. What is it, Minister? Are we going to ensure the National Learning Network places for adults with a disability are there to provide them with an opportunity in life, to try to get some sort of training or perhaps go to employment or do something else, or will the Minister remain within the stricture that the budget has been filled and we have to leave these people until next year or the year after? To my mind, that is not good enough. It is at odds with the intent of the strategy. We need to make sure the proper resources are in place so that if a young adult, or an adult of any age, with a disability wants to access the National Learning Network, they are not barred from doing so because of budgetary issues in any of our ETBs in the country.

John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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The next speaker is Deputy Devlin.

Cormac Devlin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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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.

Peter Roche (Galway East, Fine Gael)
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I welcome the publication of the strategy and give credit to the Minister for bringing it to the Chamber. For too many families in Ireland, strategies and promises have come and gone, so to speak. Sometimes what remains is a very real sense of letdown. I do not speak today in abstract as a member of my staff is the mother of a lovely ten-year-old girl with Down's syndrome. For those ten years, her lived experience has been that unless she shouts the loudest, her child's needs go unnoticed for the best part. What families are looking for is equality but they often end up with exhaustion. Parents should not have to fight every single day just to secure the most basic services for their children. There is nothing more heartbreaking for any parent than to watch their child's progress stall or, worse still, regress because the supports that should have been there were absent, delayed or inconsistent.

The strategy before us speaks of equality, participation and choice but these words will mean nothing unless they are backed by urgent action that tackles waiting lists, makes inclusive education real, lifts the crushing cost of disability for families and ensures housing, transport and healthcare are designed for everyone. The strategy can offer great hope instead of hopelessness but we need to replace exhaustion with confidence. This is a whole-of-government commitment to remove barriers in education, work, health, housing and transport and in community life.

As a legislator but also as a father and a neighbour to families in my east Galway constituency, I urge the House to fully embrace and follow through with this new action plan. We cannot afford another five years of delay. The next five years should be the years when rights are promised and lived. What is key in all of this is implementation of the strategy. I commend the Minister on bringing it to us. I certainly look forward, as do many parents, to vast improvements in this regard.

Martin Daly (Roscommon-Galway, Fianna Fail)
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Equal voices, equal actions, equal futures. I welcome the publication of the National Human Rights Strategy for Disabled People 2025-2030, which is shaped by people who live with disability. This is a landmark moment. This is the first national strategy since Ireland ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. It commits this Government to a whole-of-government response to equality, participation and choice not merely as aspirations, but as rights that must be achieved.

However, we must be honest about the gap between the strategy and its five pillars and the lived experience, especially in rural constituencies such as my own constituency of Roscommon-Galway. This year, 17 new school leavers across six towns are entering adult day services with the Brothers of Charity service in Roscommon. Funding was provided for a vehicle but there is no ongoing funding for staff to operate it. The hours required to transport individuals are deducted from the service day itself. When that day is already limited to six hours, every minute lost is significant. I am very appreciative of the extraordinary work of providers like the Brothers of Charity and Ability West and their staff, who do everything possible to stretch limited resources to meet the needs of families. However, even with their dedication, the current funding model forces services to shorten the day and families to structure their lives around it. Working days are cut short, careers are put on hold and household incomes are reduced not by choice, but because the service model does not align with the realities of modern work and family life. This is not a marginal issue. It is a structural barrier to participation. It limits the opportunities of disabled people to learn, socialise and build independence. It also constrains their families' ability to participate fully in the workforce and in society.

The national strategy is ambitious and rightly so. Its commitment to a mainstream first approach and to individualised supports is exactly what is required. However, that mission must be matched with sustained and predictable investment. We must ensure a service day that is long enough to meet need, fund staffing so that transport does not erode the day itself and deliver fairness for rural service users, who cannot be disadvantaged simply because of their geography. If we achieve that, this strategy will not be a mere statement of intent but a turning point that delivers genuine equality of participation and that fulfils the promise we made under the UN convention.

Mark Ward (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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It is the first day back in the Dáil and it is important that we talk about Harvey Morrison Sherratt. Harvey was born with complex health conditions, including spina bifida and scoliosis. Harvey spent years on waiting lists for life-changing spinal surgery. Harvey died on 29 July this year. Harvey was just nine years of age. Harvey lived in my area of Clondalkin and, over the last couple of years, I have got to know his parents. I was away when Harvey died but I took the time to contact his parents to offer them my heartfelt condolences. When I returned home, my first port of call was to visit the family to offer my condolences. I take this opportunity to publicly offer my heartfelt condolences to Harvey's parents, Gillian and Stephen, their wider family, their neighbours and their friends on the loss of Harvey. I pledge to continue to support them in their fight for justice for Harvey and to ensure that no other child has to suffer the way he did. I spoke to Harvey's dad, Stephen, just this morning in the car on my way in here. He informed me that the family have yet to receive any words of condolence from the Minister for Health. This is the very least the Minister could do.

Harvey may have died but, from speaking with his parents, I know that only strengthened their resolve to get justice for him. They are calling for an independent statutory public inquiry into spina bifida and scoliosis care at CHI. CHI is responsible for the oversight and management of waiting lists. It has also allowed non-medical grade devices to be placed into children. This is inhumane, negligent and, in my opinion, downright criminal.

Last year, I spoke about Harvey being removed from CHI waiting lists for urgent scoliosis surgery without the consent or knowledge of his parents. The Tánaiste, Deputy Simon Harris, said back in 2017 that no child would have to wait more than four months for surgery. The Tánaiste broke his promise to Harvey and to other children. Harvey spent more than three years waiting on life-changing surgery. While his parents waited, their lives were on hold while Harvey suffered. During Harvey's three years on the waiting list, his spinal curve caused his ribcage to twist around his lungs and heart, severely restricting his breathing. We have all seen that heart-wrenching video that was put on social media. Harvey spent the last two Christmases of his very short life in hospital. Eventually, Harvey underwent the first of two spinal operations but it was too late. However, there was remarkable improvement in that short time. His breathing improved and he started eating solid food for the first time in six years. However, by the time these operations took place, the curvature in his spine was so severe that the outcome was tragically limited compared to the situation had Deputy Harris kept his promise that this surgery would be done within four months.

This morning, we heard of more increased waiting times for children with scoliosis. Unless there is a radical overhaul of CHI and real accountability, including at ministerial level, Harvey will never get justice and there will be more Harveys. We have a chance to do the right thing here. Harvey's legacy must be that there will be no more Harveys and that he gets justice.

Liam Quaide (Cork East, Social Democrats)
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I thank the Minister for being here. The Government's newly launched national human rights strategy for disabled people is strong on aspirational language but we have yet to see any details on implementation such as funding commitments, staffing benchmarks or timeframes to back it up. For a sector that is so deep in crisis across all areas, including educational placements, access to therapies in residential services, employment and transport, a disability strategy with meaningful targets has never been more urgently needed.

In fairness, there are action plans for this strategy to follow. The first is to be published within three months of this document's publication. It is imperative that these contain clear timelines, benchmarks and funding commitments. As much as we should welcome the human rights-focused language of this strategy and its emphasis on consultation with disabled people, the document will be largely meaningless if its implementation is not funded in upcoming budgets. We have had visionary Government documents on disability reform in the past that have essentially come to nothing because they were not followed by political will to invest in services and to vindicate the rights of our disabled citizens.

It is extremely worrying that the strategy contains no clear commitment to upholding the rights of children with additional needs to be educated within their local communities. While Article 24 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is clear on a disabled person's right to "an inclusive education system at all levels" in the communities in which they live, the Government's strategy only commits to "Develop a Roadmap for Inclusive Education ... to take account of ... Ireland’s commitments under the" UNCRPD. This is vague non-committal language that will offer no comfort to families facing lengthy gruelling commutes to their child's school.

Another crisis skirted by this strategy is that of waiting lists in primary care services. The strategy aims to "Deliver actions to ensure more timely access to primary care therapy". There is also reference in the document to building capacity in primary care but, crucially, there is no commitment to staffing targets for these services in either the disability strategy itself or the roadmap documents it refers to. The strategy does clearly commit to a single point of access approach to services across primary care, disability and child and adolescent mental health services, CAMHS. While this will certainly help prevent children being passed from one waiting list to the next, it will not paper over the cracks of chronic underresourcing of primary care services and the continued recruitment restrictions imposed on them by the pay and numbers strategy.

As I confirmed earlier this year through parliamentary questions, the neglect of these services by successive governments over many years has led to children throughout the country routinely waiting many years for supports such as occupational therapy, physiotherapy, psychology and speech and language therapy. Within those figures are instances of children waiting nine and a half years for occupational therapy in the Dublin north area, seven years for physiotherapy in the north Lee area in Cork, six years for speech and language therapy in the Dublin north west area and an incredible 13 and a half years for psychology in the same area. It shocked primary care clinicians when the Taoiseach claimed during Leaders' Questions in July that a recruitment embargo had not been applied to these services. An embargo certainly was employed from November 2023 to July 2024. Since then, the Government's pay and numbers strategy has continued to hamper recruitment. Even prior to these restrictions, there had been chronic underresourcing of primary care for years and the redirection of large numbers of young people from children's disability network teams when the progressing disability model of care was rolled out.

Children basically went from one waiting list to the next without the necessary recruitment following them. The disability strategy refers very briefly to the over 1,200 disabled people aged under 65 who are residing in nursing homes due to a lack of specialised residential services, rehabilitation and statutory home care supports. There is no indication, however, of how the Government will commit to the findings of the ombudsman's Wasted Lives report into their circumstances, which is now four years old. In the action plans to follow this new disability strategy, it is vital that the Government moves beyond aspirational language towards clear timeframes, staffing benchmarks and funding commitments. We also need to see an unambiguous commitment to uphold the right of people with disabilities to be educated within their local communities and to plan for creating that capacity.

Sinéad Gibney (Dublin Rathdown, Social Democrats)
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I thank the Minister for being here. We welcome the opportunity to make these statements and broadly welcome this new strategy that sets out a human rights-framed vision for disability action over the coming years. Of course, we have to also highlight that the waiting still goes on, particularly for the disability community. Reports, analyses and strategies including this one are very welcome, particularly as this one is framed in the prism of human rights, but let us be clear that what we need is long overdue action. We are starting from such a bad place that we need to see real aspiration, bringing us back to our vision for a truly inclusive society. The reality for those born with a disability or those who acquire a disability through the course of their life in this State today is that the outcomes they are facing in education and employment, the key planks identified in the strategy, are so much worse than they are for any other individual. We have a long road to travel before we land at a really inclusive society.

I want to talk about those two planks, employment and education. As we heard from other speakers, in terms of employment we are an outlier with one of the worst sets of statistics for disabled people's employment across Europe. Only 36% of people in the disability community are employed. That drops to 17% for people with intellectual disabilities, and to below 20% for disabled women in Ireland. It is not only about the economic impact. During Leaders' Questions earlier, Deputy Cairns raised the fact that 76% of people who are disabled are facing poverty. It is not just about the economic impact of not being able to access labour; it is also about the autonomy and dignity that flows from that. They are not able to provide for themselves or their families. They are not able to achieve the satisfaction we all seek in work that we do. AHEAD, the employment-focused NGO that deals in disability rights, has found that it is not just about jobs and numbers for people with disabilities. It is about accessing the kind of work they want to access and that their talents lend themselves towards. It is about opportunities for advancement within that, and trying to get to the point where individuals are actually competing alongside their peers in a true fashion and not just always dealing with what is available to them as someone with a disability. The infrastructure around that is another issue dealt with in other planks of the strategy in terms of transport and so on. Access to labour is dependent on us having a decent infrastructure for people to access.

On the specific experience of people with intellectual disabilities, it is wonderful when we see people employed in those roles but sadly it is incredibly sporadic. There are no consistent structures or programmes available to people with intellectual disabilities to access employment. We are so far behind other countries in this. In Spain there is a now a legislator, Mar Galcerán, representing her constituents in a regional parliament in Spain. We are so far from that. This brings me to my second area: education. The two are inextricably linked because accessing employment relies on us having access to education throughout our lives. Even today during Leaders' Questions, the Taoiseach was celebrating that we have opened 16 special schools this year. The fact that we are talking about special schools again as being the point of achievement tells me that we have drifted so far from what inclusive education should be. People in my office spoke to a constituent recently whose two children are sent out in taxis to different locations, passing by the school that is just metres away from their home and their neighbours, so they can access appropriate education. We know this is an issue for so many people. That mother asked my colleague why her child does not have a voice and why she does not matter. We have moved so far from what inclusive education should be. We should be able to access the education that is suited to our needs regardless of the ability or disability we have. I welcome the strategy and the ambition that it holds. We have a lot further to go and we need to see the follow-through on an inclusive society and a shift in perception on disability. Equality is not a favour to those among us with disabilities. It is a recognition of the humanity of those individuals.

Keira Keogh (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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I attended the launch of the strategy last week. It was the most gorgeous event, surrounded by people from all sectors of society but most importantly the disabled voices in the room. While it was a beautiful event, the strategy itself felt different. We hear time and again from disabled people. They tell us there should be "nothing about us, without us". That is what makes this strategy feel different, because it is woven with the voices of disabled people who are at its foundation, with hundreds of contributions from disabled people, their families and carers shaping it. I also felt at the event that the disabled voices there were very excited about the strategy, in the songs they sang and the speeches they gave, but also in the conversations over coffee we had at the beginning. It is really important that we carry that with us, and ensure that these disabled voices and the voices of their carers and families are with us every step of the way as we deliver the strategy. There was a really clear visual demonstration at the event of the whole-of-government approach we keep hearing about. Several Ministers were present at the launch. I hope their presence marks the step change we have been promised. It shows the political will is there to deliver the strategy in collaboration across Departments. As we know, disability does not fit neatly into any one Department.

In my office we use a traffic light system for representations - red if we have not been able to deliver, orange if something is still in process, and green if we have been successful in helping somebody navigate the system. I think of the primary medical certificate and a young girl who needs an altered car to get to work, to an appointment or to go and see her friends. We know a legislative change is needed to take the primary medical certificate out of the Department of Finance. She is still waiting and that representation is still orange. I think of respite and a young boy who has graduated from early intervention and is now with one of the section 39 organisations, which does not have the capacity to give him the same respite he was getting. His representation is still orange and his mother has put a surgery on hold because she does not have the respite she needs to recover. I think of school places. I have been engaged with really frustrated parents and principals who technically had a school place but in reality some were still at home. Another boy was in a school but did not have the right resources. Today finally, the last one has turned green, even though there are still some physical and human resources needed. We have to keep moving towards green, translating the commitments we have made across classrooms, workplaces, hospitals, housing and transport systems into real, tangible improvements in daily life. Disabled children must be able to go to school with their siblings and neighbours and must be given all the support they need to achieve their potential and ambition. Disabled young adults must be able to live in a home of their own with individualised supports that they need, not in nursing homes away from their communities. Disabled people must be able to move through our transportation system, our streets, our public and commercial spaces with the same freedom as everybody else. We can do this by keeping universal design at the forefront of everything we do. I am a really proud member of the disability matters committee and I will be responsible to hold this Government to account on delivering the strategy. We all need to remember the theme, which is equal voices, equal actions and equal futures. This is the theme of the strategy as chosen by the disabled voices and it must be the measure of all of us in this Chamber.

Albert Dolan (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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When I was first elected to the Dáil just over nine months ago, I was really heartened by the leadership shown by Deputy Mícheál Martin to appoint Deputy Norma Foley as Minister for children and disabilities, to have focus at Cabinet level and to have cross-departmental focus on disabilities. The new disability strategy is a welcome step forward and it is welcome that people of all levels of ability were included in the formulation of this strategy, but the test of this strategy will not just be the words on the page; it will be what happens in people's lives. Success will be children getting therapies in their schools without years of waiting. Success will be when young people can move into jobs with the right supports in place. Success will be when transport, housing and public spaces are designed so that accessibility is the norm and not an afterthought. Last week, I witnessed a positive example in St. Oliver's Special School in Tuam where I attended the opening of the school. It is an incredible investment in children and families and one we should all welcome. However, unless the supports are there for the school to expand, it will end up turning children away in the years ahead and this cannot be allowed to happen. I ask the Minister of State to engage with St. Oliver's Special School, which I know is under the Department of Education and Youth, but there is an opportunity with the HSE to provide additional space at the back of the site to allow more capacity in the school. Ability West is the patron of that school, and it is willing to engage on that issue.

Across County Galway there are other opportunities where proper planning and funding would change lives. At Toghermore campus in Tuam equine therapy has the potential to be transformative. I have met with representatives of Ability West and heard of their ambition for the site. That ambition they have needs to be matched with the ambition of Government to support it. We do not have equine therapy in the west. We have it in the east, south and midlands but e do not have it in the west, and we need to encourage that investment. Almost 1,000 hours of therapy could be provided weekly in north County Galway. Second, in Athenry, the Brothers of Charity and the HSE are jointly renting a facility that to this day remains vacant. They do not have the capital to turn it into a transformative educational and training facility. That is there and ready to go. I again ask the Minister of State to work with the Brothers of Charity in Galway to try to achieve that. I regularly visit the Hidden Gem cafe in Gort. It shows us what real inclusion looks like. Every time I visit, I see the dignity and community that comes when people with disabilities are at the heart of the project. It truly is a heartwarming experience. Every time I go in, I am greeted with a smile. It is incredible to experience that social inclusion and the positivity that emanates from it, and it should be replicated across the country.

I welcome that this strategy puts accountability at the highest level, with the Taoiseach and every Department responsible for delivery. That gives us a chance to move from aspiration to action, but it will only succeed if people with disabilities remain central to every decision. I welcome that element of this strategy, if resources of course match the ambition that Government has. Once Government puts the resources in, this plan has a real chance of being a game-changer, and that is what it makes it exciting. People with disabilities have contributed to this plan. They are involved in this plan, and they understand how this plan can and will work, and Government has the ambition to make it work. Disability policy in Ireland has come a long way but it still has a long way to go. Our responsibility now is to plan for the future where accessibility and inclusion are built in from the start, where no child is turned away and where every community is open, welcoming and equal. That is what success should look like and that is what this strategy must deliver.

Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein)
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I welcome the publication by the Government of The National Human Rights Strategy for Disabled People 2025-2030. It has been suggested that this is a roadmap for inclusion of citizens who live with a disability. We have been down this road before and without a legal framework, I fear this strategy will not have any meaningful impact at all on the lives of those living with a disability, but I might be wrong. Each pillar title of the strategy represents an area where this Government and its predecessors have failed to advance services and supports for those living with a disability, be that in terms of inclusive education, employment or independent living. Pillar 1 is education and inclusive learning. There has been a failure to deliver for students with additional needs. These students have a fundamental right to education, but a failure to provide and deliver sufficient school infrastructure has meant that many of them are denied the supports needed to offer them an appropriate education. What action does the Department intend to take to address the serious shortfalls in the services for children with additional needs at Le Chéile national school in Limerick? The Minister of State, Deputy Moynihan, visited this school with me last week, and I have raised it in the Dáil on a number of occasions. I hope some action is taken in respect of that school very soon.

Pillar 2 is employment. We lag far behind our European counterparts. The European Disability Forum's Human Rights Report 2023 notes that this State's rate of employment for those with a disability is the lowest in the EU. I have seen so often the level of talent and creativity in those of our citizens who live with a disability. To date, many of these citizens have not had the employment platform to showcase these talents. This must change.

Pillar 3 is independent living. Those with a disability are too often denied independent living opportunities, but they are just another cohort of people who have been impacted by our housing crisis. Some 13% of adults aged over 25 within the home have a disability. A disability allowance payment is simply not sufficient to support independent living given the cost of housing. Funding for housing adaptation grants has already run out in Limerick so necessary conversion works cannot be commenced. This is an absolute scandal.

We also have a problem in this State when it comes to providing a guarantee of rights to people with a disability. They have few rights at present. It should not take the inspirational work of teenage disability rights campaigner Cara Darmody to prompt change and action. When it comes to providing assessments of need for children with a suspected disability, the Government is in constant breach of the law. The State is basically repeatedly breaking the law every day with regard to children with disabilities and this has to stop. The State is legally required to carry out an assessment of need within six months of an application yet the HSE estimates that by the end of this year almost 25,000 children will have been waiting more than six months, with 15,000 already waiting more than six months. An assessment of need is vital for children and their parents. It is crucial in supporting parents as they seek to access services such as occupational therapy, speech and language supports and provisional special assistance within school settings. I would contribute a lot more, but I have run out of time. I am chair of the disability matters committee and we will pursue all of this stuff during this Dáil term.

Brian Stanley (Laois, Independent)
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I welcome the opportunity to speak on this important issue. The State has ratified the UNCRPD and the Government now has a strategy. I welcome all of that but let us see how we are doing on it. The diagnosis of autism has increased. That is obviously because there are more diagnoses being done. That is good, but it is too slow. There is a 16-month waiting list for a lot of families. That is simply too long and must be improved. The convention asked that we promote and protect people with disabilities, so they have equal rights such as inclusive learning. I will address the issue of children with autism or other special needs, who need access to a children's disability network team. There is a chronic shortage of staff on those teams in County Laois. What is happening is that the assessments are either delayed and the therapies are further delayed or are not available at all.

Some progress has been made in the area of transport. At one time people did not have access on to a bus or anything like that. Progress has been made and I can see that when I use public transport. However, we have a lot more to do there, particularly in rural Ireland. I commend the work of the Irish Wheelchair Association, which has particularly highlighted this. When I was first elected as a councillor a number of decades ago, one thing I did was go around with the Margaret McRee who has since passed on to her eternal reward. She was in a wheelchair.

I was amazed to see the difficulties there were trying to navigate through towns, on footpaths and everything else. That must be improved. The fact people have to pre-book 24 hours in advance at minimum to get onto public transport needs to change. Is my time up?

John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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It is. I call Deputy Healy.

Séamus Healy (Tipperary South, Independent)
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Disabled people are entitled to live life to the full. They must have an opportunity to take full part in society, education, healthcare, housing, employment, justice, transport, entertainment and so on. This strategy fails to outline an urgent concrete implementation plan, and such a plan is needed if Ireland is to comply with its obligations under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The strategy is generalised, non-specific, lacking in detail and lacking in funding, and this Government is again failing people with disabilities. The key to disabled people taking their rightful place in society is assessment at an early age. Every child is entitled by law to receive an assessment of need within six months of referral. Successive governments have been breaking this law for years. Apparently, governments are above the law.

I first raised this issue in the House in January of 2017 with the current Tánaiste and then Minister for Health, Deputy Harris. The position now is monumentally worse. Some 16,500 children are waiting for assessment. Thousands of them have been waiting for more than two years. Over 40,000 children are on waiting lists for various therapies, including occupational therapy, physiotherapy, speech and language and psychology. This is shameful, and there is no plan in this strategy to tackle these outrageous waiting lists. When is this Government going to put together a concrete plan to eliminate these waiting lists?

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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I welcome any strategy that has human rights in it. I, therefore, welcome the National Human Rights Strategy for Disabled People. However, if I go to the back of it, I see that there is a fundamental misunderstanding. On the last page, it states that their message is clear: people with disabilities want to be treated the same as everyone else. That is not accurate. They do not want to be treated the same as everyone else because that would not be treating them as people with a disability who need carefully planned services and carefully planned assistance. There is a fundamental misunderstanding there. Then, we go to the background to this. That is the human rights strategy.

Let me take the Minister of State back as quickly as I can in my two minutes and 30 seconds. In 1993, we had the Commission on the Status of People with Disabilities; in 2004, we had the National Disability Strategy; in 2005, we had the Disability Act, which the Government is utterly not complying with; and in 2007, we signed the UNCRPD, and ratified it in 2018. We signed the optional protocol in 2018. In 2012, we had Value for Money and Policy Review of Disability Services in Ireland. We had the National Disability Strategy Implementation Plan 2013-2015; the Comprehensive Employment Strategy for People with Disabilities; National Disability Inclusion Strategy; and so on. The Action Plan for Disability Services is taking us up to 2026. What did the Taoiseach tell us at the national dialogue? The system is not delivering for disabled people, despite all of that.

Now, we have a strategy, and the strategy has no plan. We are going to get the first plan in December. Is the Government on target for that? We have no idea where the monitoring committee is. Has it been set up?

Then, we look at the human rights. What does it tell us? The Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission, IHREC, stated that "Viewed on its own, the Strategy also does not include enough concrete actions and targeted measures to allow effective monitoring of implementation." It went on to state that it does not adequately address key issues central to the full implementation of the UN convention on rights, and that it does not include "access to justice, inclusive education and the need to urgently address institutional safeguarding issues." AHEAD, the NGO, stated that the strategy commitments are often aspirational and in many areas, there is little detail with concrete evidence - I am losing my words here I am going so quickly - and that disabled persons organisations are highlighted but they are under-resourced and understaffed.

Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Solidarity)
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In my brief time, I do not really have time to comment on the whole national strategy on disability. I just want to focus on one little boy who kind of sums up the attitude of this State to people with disabilities and particularly disabled children, namely, Harvey Morrison Sherratt, whose life was undervalued from the word go. Ironically, his parents were strongly encouraged to have an abortion when his diagnosis was made. They would not be entitled to an abortion in this country even now, ironically. However, it is symptomatic of the way that people are treated who do take on and do choose to go ahead with having a disabled child. Harvey got very late treatment throughout his infancy. His parents had to lodge complaints to the HSE before he was aged one. He had severe pain caused by spinal curving. Finally, in 2022, he went on the spinal surgery list with the aim to have the operation in August. That surgery never happened. In April 2023, they received a letter to cancel it yet again. Harvey was in hospital five times that year and saw four different surgeons, and in August 2024, Harvey was removed from that waiting list with no explanation ever being given to his parents after 30 months waiting on a list. Eventually, they saw a surgeon in his private clinic and Harvey eventually got surgery in November 2024. At this stage, his curve was 130 degrees double what it had been when he went on the list. Unfortunately, as we know, Harvey died within eight months. Harvey's parents, who I have spoken to, want a public inquiry into CHI, spinal surgeries and these complex procedures. The Government has consistently refused the calls in this Dáil for such an inquiry. We have had unlicensed springs. We have had unnecessary hip surgeries. We have had €19 million misspent. We have had the orphan report, the HIQA report and the Ombudsman's report. They want the publication of the Dixon and Nguyen reports. Why has Simon Harris not met these parents? He has talked the talk in the media, but he has never arranged to meet Gillian and Stephen. Why not? It is the least he could do if he is serious about addressing this issue and finding out more. Why is the Minister of State still setting her face against a public inquiry? She knows we will all be back here in a year's time, and she will be conceding one.

Naoise Ó Cearúil (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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I would like to first welcome the National Human Rights Strategy for Disabled People. I particularly commend the fact that it was developed in partnership with disabled people, and the five key pillars in terms of inclusive learning and education, employment, independent living and active participation in society, well-being and health and transport and mobility.

Two Thursday's ago, I met with representatives from Dara Community Living, which is based in Celbridge in my constituency of Kildare North. They are doing incredible work with people with disabilities, and their service users shared many of their stories with me and the benefits of independent living. In looking at the five particular pillars, independent living and active participation is a core pillar of that, and the other pillars come in under those auspices as well. Some of the stories that were shared by the services users include that of one particular man, Paul, who has now gone on to write his own book. He is living independently. He has care staff who help and assist him with his day-to-day living. I heard from others as well. It is incredible to see the new lease of life that people with disabilities gain once they have that independent living.

What is more they have the opportunity to actually gain employment. We know that quite a number of people with disabilities are not in work. Some 32.6% of disabled people are in work compared to an EU average of 51.3%. What I would love to see as part of this strategy as it develops is working to really help people with disabilities gain employment because it comes back again to that piece around independent living and giving people with disabilities a role that they see fit and with which they are comfortable.

Many of them have excellent jobs on farms, for example. Michael, who I met, is working on a farm and loves working with the chickens and the animals. Other people are working in retail or in coffee shops. What they are looking for most of all is that ability to gain employment. Dara Community Living is doing excellent work in helping those people gain employment, but also gain their independence through independent living.

6 o’clock

I welcome the strategy. I ask that there be a particular focus on the independent living aspect. Obviously, employment plays a key role in that. As I said, I would like to welcome the strategy and commend the work of Dara Community Living and all other service providers throughout the State.

Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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I welcome the National Human Rights Strategy for Disabled People 2025-2030. However, the Minister and I know that the road from here to Mayo is paved with good intentions and unimplemented strategies, many of which have been outlined here. The subsequent action plan and its implementation will be the test of whether the strategy will bring about genuine change or is just another collection of words.

The fact is that the Government is breaking the law, as Cara Darmody continues to point out again and again, as regards assessments of need. The tragic and avoidable passing of Harvey Morrison Sherratt over the summer must bring an end to the neglect of children with significant medical needs in the State. My sincere condolences to his parents, Gillian and Stephen, and my deepest gratitude to them for the campaign they are leading to save the lives of other children who wait for operations. I fully support their pursuit of a full independent statutory inquiry.

Mikey Henry from Mayo is a young person who has experienced the consequences of a failure of care in Children's Health Ireland, CHI. His story has been raised by me and others in the House He is 17 years of age. When his parents first tried to access an operation to address his scoliosis in 2022, the curve in his spine was 82°. This week, the curve in his spine is 130°. Mikey's scoliosis has deteriorated to the point that it has damaged his lungs and left him struggling to breathe on his own, requiring oxygen during the day and a mask at night to breathe. This has happened despite promises in 2017 from the Tánaiste and then Minister for Health, Deputy Simon Harris, that by the end of the year no child would have to wait more than four months for scoliosis surgery. This is evidently not the reality for families up and down the country.

In the Irish Independent today, Mary Regan reported that the number of children waiting for spinal surgery continues to rise. Right now, there are 135 children on the waiting list, an increase of 108 since the start of the year. Only seven children have received surgery abroad since the previous Minister for Health instructed the HSE to send any child waiting more than four months for surgery to the UK or New York to receive their life-saving treatment. We know some children are not medically fit to travel as their scoliosis has deteriorated.

When I spoke to Harvey's mum, Gillian, last week, I asked her what immediate steps need to be taken to ensure no other lives are lost. She outlined two very practical and immediate measures. The first was insourcing. Why are we not bringing in consultants and surgeons from abroad to carry out life-saving surgeries and operations as a matter of urgency? The second was the ring-fencing of a small section of private hospitals to carry out surgeries on non-complex patients, thereby freeing up public hospitals for more complex surgeries where multiple treatments are required. I ask that the House be updated on a weekly basis until all of the children on the waiting list have received their life-saving surgery. If we are not about saving lives here, what are we about?

I also want to raise the necessity of Mikey and other children and young adults being provided with suitable transport, which can carry the oxygen tanks they now need, in order to meet the needs of the families and children with scoliosis who have been failed over and over again in so many ways. What kind of stupid bureaucracy denies these children and families something as basic as transport? This has to be sorted out. This is the first day back of this Dáil. If we cannot save the lives of these children, what are we doing? We absolutely have to do this. We have to do everything possible and have accountability. We did not have accountability for Harvey, but we need accountability for the other children who are waiting.

Michael Collins (Cork South-West, Independent Ireland Party)
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I beg the indulgence of the Leas-Cheann Comhairle to pay tribute to Fianna Fáil Councillor Patrick Gerard Murphy, who represented Bantry, Castletownbere and Skull electoral area and whose untimely death took place last Friday. His funeral is taking place as I speak this evening. Patrick was a councillor decades ahead of time. He had a great ability to bring people from right across the political divide with him. He was hugely intelligent and well spoken in politics but also in community. I am so sorry I cannot be with the people of Castletownbere and Eyeries tonight and tomorrow for the funeral of their greatest son, but Patrick Gerard would know that I have to be here. He would say that the show must go on. My sincere sympathies to him and family. It is appropriate that we are talking about disabilities as Patrick was in a wheelchair for many years. He fought that bravely and never in any way let his people down. He always worked hard for those people. I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle for giving me the chance to pay tribute to him.

I welcome the publication of the national human rights strategy for disabled people. It is long overdue. Too many of our citizens and families in every parish in this country have been left waiting for basic dignity and fairness. The strategy is a step in the right direction and we should say that clearly. People in rural parishes and urban estates will not measure this plan by the glossy brochure launched in the Mansion House. Rather, they will measure it by whether their son finally gets his spinal surgery, their daughter finally gets access to a speech and language therapist or a parent caring for a child with profound needs finally gets the respite that has been promised time and again. This is the test and on that test the Government has failed too often.

The strategy refers to health and well-being, which is welcome. However, let us face the elephant in room, namely, the disgrace of children waiting for surgery and the scandal of children waiting two and three years to be assessed for basic supports. That is where the Government's credibility will be judged.

The Independent Ireland Party has been clear. We would abolish means testing for carers. We would pay carers properly and give them the training they deserve. We would build the residential and respite facilities that families have been begging for and expand training for occupational and speech and language therapists so that children are not left languishing on lists. Families do not want more pillars or promises. They want services they can see.

Education is another area where the plan must deliver. The Government talks about roadmaps and transitions, but where are the dates, resources and extra therapists in schools? Where are the supports for children moving into apprenticeships and college? We support inclusive education. The Independent Ireland Party backs apprenticeships, fairer access to grants and proper training for SNAs. Inclusion must mean that no parent has to fight every step of the way just to get their child a place, assessment or fair chance.

Employment is another area where the words do not match the reality. Too many people are trapped. They want to work, but they are terrified of losing their disability allowance or secondary benefits. The strategy states it will tackle benefit traps, which is welcome. We will hold the Government to account on that. The Independent Ireland Party believes in simple and flexible welfare rules. If a person takes up a job and it does not work out, they must be able to receive their payment again without months of bureaucracy. While targets in the Civil Service are well and good, the real challenge is creating jobs in every town and village and helping small local businesses to employ disabled people with real support.

Housing is central to dignity. The strategy is tied to the national housing plan, but housing for disabled people has been kicked down the road for years. Our policies are clear, namely, modular homes, cuts to VAT on building materials and bringing derelict houses back into use. If we marry those measures with universal design standards, we would see disabled people living independently in every parish in Ireland. Housing not a favour; it is a right to dignity and independence.

Transport and mobility are the keys to inclusion. Without them, equality is a false promise. Accessibility is not just a line in the strategy; it is the difference between being able to take up a job or not and being able to meet friends or being stuck at home. The strategy refers to accessible door-to-door journeys. We welcome that, but let us see what happens in practice. It means fixing the broken mobility schemes, upgrading buses and trains so they are fully accessible and, crucially, rural transport links because equality is not just for Dublin. If a person cannot get from a rural parish to a hospital appointment or a job, then all the fine words in the strategy mean nothing.

On accountability, people with disability and carers are sick to death of reports and reviews that go nowhere. Committees and glossy action plans mean nothing if nothing changes on the ground. We want hard targets which are costed and measured and timelines to be published in plain English. Progress should be measured not in press releases but in reduced waiting lists and better services. We support giving disabled persons organisations a real seat at the table and not token consultation but instead genuine power to shape delivery.

Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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At the moment, this is no country for young children and for many people who have disabilities. This day last year I raised with the then Taoiseach, Deputy Simon Harris, the case of Harvey Morrison Sherratt. I raised the facts that he had been taken off a waiting list unbeknownst to his family, had been left in excruciating pain for his condition to develop and never had the necessary operations he needed to be able to regain health. Tragically, over the summer, Harvey Morrison Sherratt died. I do think we have reached a watershed moment in terms of how people with disabilities have been treated in this country.

To lose a child is the most tragic experience any parent will ever have to go through. To lose a child in such excruciating circumstances for the want of proper treatment is absolutely wrong. It is incredibly wrong, so much so that this State must take responsibility for it. We have a situation where Simon Harris promised when he was the Minister for Health that no child would have to wait for over four months to have the operation they needed. Yet we have a child who waited over three years for the operations. It is absolutely wrong. We have seen Harvey's parents, Gillian and Stephen, in the depths of horrendous grief, having to campaign for the rights of other parents and children to have the operations they needed in a timely fashion. They have also campaigned for justice for Harvey too.

It is wrong that we have a Government that has pushed back against having a proper investigation into what is happening in CHI. Nobody here can stand over what is happening in CHI at the moment. It is drowning in dysfunction. We have had nine separate reports, many of them not even published yet and some of them not made available to the parents, in relation to the dysfunction happening. There is a toxic management culture within CHI. Money is being spent without proper oversight. Children have had unauthorised springs inserted into them. Many children have had operations forced upon them. These are children who did not meet the threshold for those operations. Indeed, the waiting lists for children awaiting operations are now actually increasing. The buck has to stop somewhere. Somebody has to be held responsible for this. If there is no responsibility, there will be no change. This is one of the reasons we have asked for a proper public inquiry, along with the family, in relation to this issue. We will be tabling at the next opportunity a motion of no confidence in Simon Harris. There must be change in relation to this.

I also wish to speak about Cara Darmody and the phenomenal campaign she has run over the last year. It is incredible that she has had to go and stay outside the gates of Leinster House overnight on many occasions just to be able to put the issue of assessments of need front and centre. I am glad to be able to say that she has actually achieved a number of commitments from the Tánaiste in relation to this. She has received a commitment that the right to an assessment of need will remain in law. She has received a commitment that a deadline for a new assessment of need law will be placed and this will happen before January 2026. She has received a 100% commitment not to change the six-month waiting list to assess autistic children. She has also achieved the objective of getting extra funding into this area.

I understand the Tánaiste has said the Government is going to see if it can recruit therapists from the private sector to help with the waiting lists in this regard. I hope this is under way, because I have been talking to some therapists and they have not heard about it yet.

John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Deputy.

Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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If we are to make sure children get the assessments of need that are necessary and if therapists are going to be recruited, then they need to know it is happening.

Micheál Carrigy (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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This strategy sets out a whole-of-government approach to disability. Individual Departments and State agencies are responsible for delivering on these commitments. I am just going to read into the record these individual commitments. They are that:

We will create a more inclusive educational system for disabled children and young people that will respect the rights of everyone to choose and access the learning environments that meet their needs.

[...]

We will improve retention rates and progression for disabled children and young people as they deal with transitions within education ...

[...]

We will help educators and staff to create learning spaces that are friendly and supportive of all disabled children and young people.

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We will maximise opportunities and access for disabled people to get meaningful work in the civil and public [service].

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We will actively promote the hiring and career advancement of disabled people across the private sector.

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We will provide the right supports at the right time for disabled people to access work or return to work.

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We will deliver the right individual supports at the right time so that disabled people using disability services can maximise their opportunities to live independently and choose to be an active part of their local communities.

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We will increase the participation of disabled people in social and cultural life, including in arts, tourism, and sport ...

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We will enable disabled people to have meaningful engagement in political life and public fora and to actively engage in elections on an equitable basis as citizens.

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We will improve access to supports and enable disabled people, particularly those with more complex disabilities, to live a full life in the community.

[...]

We will enhance the effective delivery of the National Housing Strategy for Disabled People (2022 – 2027).

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We will support the inclusion of disabled people in their local communities by continuing to improve our services and by creating accessible environments ...

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We will ensure that disabled people have access to justice on an equal basis with others and that they do not unnecessarily enter the Criminal Justice system ...

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We will create a more accessible and inclusive mainstream health service ...

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We will ensure that disabled people are treated with respect and dignity, have their welfare promoted and receive support in an environment in which every effort is made to promote welfare and prevent abuse.

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We will enhance disabled people’s overall health and wellbeing.

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We will ensure that all disabled children and young people are supported to access the mental health services they need.

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We will achieve a quality, accessible, equitable and timely service for all disabled children and their families based on their needs.

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We will ensure that disabled children and adults can benefit from improved access to oral healthcare.

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We will ensure that disabled people are made aware of the supports available to them in accessing the National Screening Service through improved targeted promotion.

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We will ensure that disabled children and adults who develop hearing loss can benefit from appropriate and timely interventions.

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We will take a “whole-of-journey” approach applying Universal Design principles in the development of infrastructure and services to improve the accessibility of our transport system across the country.

[...]

We will support those who cannot use or access ... public transport, or who may need private transport to get to and from public transport, by providing disabled people with enhanced personal mobility options.

John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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The Deputy's time is up. He will have to please conclude.

Micheál Carrigy (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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We as a Government will be judged on delivering each one of these commitments. I ask that the Government put every resource possible into doing so, and I know it will. I know the commitment is there to ensure we deliver on all these commitments.

Barry Ward (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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I remember speaking many years ago to a resource teacher in Loughlinstown in my constituency. He was saying that if you ask a child in the classroom to throw a balled-up piece of paper into the bin, they can all do it to the same extent, except it is much easier for the kids sitting at the front of the class than it is for the kids sitting at the back of the class. What this is about is levelling the playing field. This applies to disability as much as it does to educational opportunity. We must, therefore, be looking at levelling the playing field for people, irrespective of what challenges they face, so they can achieve as much as they possibly can.

I pay tribute to those who have been involved in organisations like Changing Places Ireland. I worked with them when I was on the county council trying to ensure we had not just proper and accessible bathrooms in public spaces, but facilities for people who need much more than just an accessible bathroom, where hoists and other facilities are required. I welcome that the group has achieved charitable status. I acknowledge the work of people like Ann Healy, Aaron Daly, Aisling McNiffe, Annette Monaghan and the tireless work they have done, along with my colleague, Councillor Vicki Casserly, in this space.

This endeavour, though, must expand to more than just that. Let us look at employment. We provide grants to people who require assistance, for example. We help them with a payment to allow them to do what they need to do. If they then get a job and start working, however, and make too much money, they will lose out on that grant because it is means-tested. They still face the same difficulties, however. They still have the same problems getting to work and with employers who cannot or will not facilitate them. This must change.

Transport has to change. If I am a wheelchair user, I should not have to call Dún Laoghaire Dart station in advance to let them know I will be getting off the first carriage so someone can come out with a ramp and put it down so I can get off. I stood in Woodbrook Dart station as we opened it, but that new fully accessible station still needs ramps to get people on and off the train. They talked in Iarnród Éireann about how they are bringing in these fabulous new trains that are going to be level with the platform and will allow, for example, mobility impaired people to get on and off unassisted. That is wonderful and I welcome it, but it is still two years away.

If we really want to level the playing field and if we really want to say to people with any type of disability that we are there to support them and to give them the same opportunities that anyone else has, we must be serious about it. We cannot say, "Yes, we are working on it and it is coming in two years' time." Now is the time to do it. We also need to work in terms of the supports we provide to people through social protection to ensure they have the same opportunities. This includes employers. There must be an incentive there to ensure this, because employers do sometimes need to make allowances for people with disabilities. Most employers will do it if they can.

What we want to do is make sure that it is not difficult for them to do that and that they have the capacity to do it. That is a key part of levelling the playing pitch too, because we know that people with disabilities are much more likely to suffer from unemployment. A total of 75% of them suffer from unemployment. That is fixable for many of those people. They want to work but, because of whatever challenge they face, they cannot do so and they cannot find an employer who either wants to or can make the changes that are needed.

Let us level the playing field. Let us put in place the measures they need to do what they want to do in order that they contribute the same as everybody else. Then we will have a more inclusive society, but also one that is better for it because all of them will be added in to the mix, delivering what we all want to deliver to make this a better place.

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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Before I begin speaking on the national human rights strategy for disabled people, I want to take an opportunity to reflect on the far-too-short life of Harvey Morrison Sherratt and to extend my sincere sympathies in the Dáil to his family, Gillian, Stephen, Lyla and Remy, and his extended family. The pain felt by those around Harvey can never be eased. What we can do now and are determined to do is to drive change, but I do want to acknowledge that.

In the weeks since Harvey's passing, I have asked the HSE CEO, Bernard Gloster, for a timeline of Harvey's care from a multidisciplinary perspective. I have received a draft, but we do not regard it as a final complete document until his parents have had an opportunity to feed in their perspectives. It will only be final once it is agreed and discussed and we have had the opportunity for Bernard Gloster, at the family's convenience, to agree a timeline of care. It is not for us to determine that by ourselves; their voices must be heard. I will also meet with Harvey's parents, Gillian and Stephen, with the Tánaiste shortly.

We will continue to drive improvements to try to get a better service in CHI. While we are here to speak about the national human rights strategy for people with disabilities and I would like to discuss that, I am conscious that when we speak about disabilities there are a group under the care of CHI for whom we are not, in my opinion, delivering timely enough services. Though we are doing more outpatient clinics on Saturdays - this year there have been 16 - which has resulted in an increase in the number of patients referred for surgery through better diagnostics through attending to people at an earlier stage of the order of an additional 700 as a consequence, we have recruited a new surgeon who began on 11 August, and we have put in more resources time and time again in terms of MRI machines, theatre capacity and additional human resources, I am still not satisfied with the timelines for surgeries or the referral pathways identified for 2025. It is a matter of fact that the 2025 plan that was received to the Department in relation to the surgical spinal plan was sent back as not being sufficient. I am not satisfied with the international referral pathways and have lots of questions about why there is a decrease in international pathways and an increase in referrals to Blackrock.

Some of the measures that we are taking to try to address the waiting management of it is a centralised management of dealing with cases and key workers to be able to respond to parents. Though I am not satisfied that neither of these things is in place today, I am told that they will be done by the end of September.

On restructuring the theatre plan, because of the capacity of the new surgeon to do more work and seeing what we can do with additional theatres in Cappagh, though I would have expected this to have been done already, I have examined the reasons for the cancellation of surgeries - literally all of the reasons for the distribution and why surgeries were cancelled because of a clinical reason, a matter within the hospital or a parental matter - and looked through those different reasons and tried to understand it better, but I cannot overstate my frustration with this. This is why I have asked Bernard Gloster to commission a specific audit into three practice areas in CHI, two of which are to be surgical - one neurological, one spinal services and one other medical profession to be determined by the auditor - to examine exactly how these pathways are occurring, exactly what is happening, and how people are referred to different processes or not. I have also put in a strong qualitative element to try to understand and be able to talk to parents on how it is that this was referred to them or that was referred to them, but not this or not that, to try to get a much better picture. I expect to have that audit by the end of November or the beginning of December, subject to the auditor.

I really would like to speak about the human rights strategy for disabled people but I appreciate I have used my time on that matter. It is important.

Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein)
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I welcome this opportunity to speak on the strategy this evening. The aim of this national human rights strategy for disabled people is about ensuring disabled people are supported and empowered to live a full life.

I will touch on a few issues. Regarding transport and mobility, the strategy commits to taking the whole journey approach. I have raised it here through parliamentary questions on a couple of occasions. Even with the current transport strategy, there is no wheelchair access or lifts on the railway lines to Cobh, Fota and so on. We are talking about encompassing and empowering people. We have a lot of beaches in east Cork, such as Inch, Ballycroneen, White Bay, Ballybranagan, Youghal and Ballycotton. That is our secret and we do not like to tell anybody about it, but there too there are very few ramps. The beaches are not wheelchair accessible.

I welcome the fact that this strategy is coming, although maybe a bit late. I want to turn back to the part where the strategy states at the start that we want to ensure that disabled people are supported and empowered to live a full life. I have raised on a couple of occasions the case of Katie Byrne, who is from Cobh. On 24 September this year, she will be 15 years waiting for a hip operation. I have her file with me. The Taoiseach was talking about it today. I note the thickness of the file. I have gone to three health Ministers and one disability Minister on this. This girl is still waiting for the operation and is classed as disabled. I heard the Taoiseach say today that is a clinical decision here and they will have to look at it. I will quote, without mentioning any doctor's name or anything, from the very latest medical report that Katie Byrne got here in Ireland. I will not even mention the county. This professor said:

While I appreciate the local surgeons concerns, I can assure you that this will not set her back from walking. She will be up out of bed using a walker within a day or two of surgery. Her muscles will work better due to the improved hip mechanics so they will seem stronger not weaker.

We are on about empowering people and letting them live their own full lives. As I said, I have been dealing with this family for the past two years but this poor girl has been waiting 15 years for a hip operation. I have had, as I said, three health Ministers here and we cannot get answers. I am using this opportunity to appeal. There is an old saying. We all have parents and they say, "Doctors differ and patients die." This poor girl has been suffering for 15 years. I am appealing to the Minister and the Minister of State tonight. If they want this national human rights strategy for people with disabilities to succeed, they have to take these cases individually and they have to think outside the box. As I said, while some people's opinions may differ from others, the job is here. No matter what it costs and no matter what the opinions are, it is about doing the right thing. I appeal to the Minister to look at this case and use this human rights strategy as a template to do the right thing.

Gillian Toole (Meath East, Independent)
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I welcome the publication of the strategy and, most important, the commitments within it because that, in effect, is the roadmap. It will, most definitely, underpin the work of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Disability Matters and it will be our reference point. Indeed, we are already taking elements of it and incorporating them into the work plan of the current term.

Is the plan of action like to be published in December? The timeline was approximately three months.

Key to this will be accountability and then the oversight of delivery. As for the Cabinet committee reports, where and when will they be available? As for the senior officials group, who are they and will that information be available? As for the delivery and monitoring committee, who are they and when will the reports be available?

Funding of the Department is key, obviously, in the run-up to the budget deliberations.

More as a comment than anything else, we must remember, first and foremost, that we are human beings rather than human doings and that is where the strategy is so important. GDP, of course, and economics are very important, but it brings that focus back. If we design our systems and services for disabled people, we will provide outcomes for everybody in society and enrich it.

Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
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I am glad to get the opportunity. Even though so many people with disabilities are allocated home care or home help, often the home help never turns up, or at least not the amount of it that is supposed to be given to people. I have a case of a mother and daughter. The mother is minding the daughter for the past 35 years. The daughter got an acquired brain injury. She had strokes and several things and she is speechless. She has so many different problems. The house is fitted out. There is no home anywhere fitted out like it is fitted out to care for this girl.

The mother is now sick. She was promised three visits by two people each day but only one person is coming once a day. She is sick herself. This is not fair. If the HSE does not have the staff, I cannot understand why. I have been highlighting this for two years for several different people. Why can the HSE not employ contract workers? This poor mother is over 70 years of age. I know she wanted me to mention her in the Chamber but I will not do so until I have full authority. She is suffering and she has suffered for the last 35 years in seeing after her daughter. Now, when she is not able to see after herself, she needs the three visits each day from two people, given a hoist is needed to get the daughter out of bed, put her to bed and those little things. They would manage the rest themselves over the 24 hours of the day. It is not fair to give them an allocation and have no one turn up.

I am sick of it. I am not blaming the Minister of State; I am blaming the HSE. Something will have to be done about it. It is time to call “Stop”. I do not want these glossy magazines or reports on anything. The facts are there, and the Government knows it. They must be seen after.

Barry Heneghan (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
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I welcome the publication of the strategy, which is anchored in human rights and our obligations under the UNCRPD. It is worth remembering that when this was ratified, it was my predecessor, the former Minister of State, Finian McGrath, who got it delivered. The progress was slow but I am delighted to see it has been made.

I want to raise one concern that was brought to me by multiple DPOs, which was that engagement in the design of the strategy was restricted to the DPO network. While disabled persons organisations must be central in everything we do in government, multiple DPOs have reached out to me to say they were not consulted, including two in my constituency. I feel the net was drawn too tightly. One of the organisations within the network cannot, under the current structure, be considered a true DPO.

That said, this strategy deserves strong backing. It is going to give us the framework that is needed. However, while frameworks and reports are one thing, the next step is delivery. We must now turn the commitments into action. I welcome that the Minister of State has published the network and that there are major commitments in the programme for Government regarding disabilities.

It was great to see Joan Carty, advocacy manager at the Irish Wheelchair Association, at the launch. I look forward to working tirelessly with Joan when the voices of disabled people are heard and acted upon. That is what we must do. The strategy sets the direction. The challenge for us now is to match it with action and delivery to make an impact.

Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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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.