I will make a few points about that in a minute or two but the work Senator Kelleher has mentioned about the Oireachtas disability group is related to that. I have had the honour of chairing it and former Deputy Ó Caoláin has been a great partner as the leas-chathaoirleach. I want to particularly pay tribute to him and to his work, which is not just tied to what he has done as a member of a party. His heart and soul has been in that for all of his life. In that regard, I send him my condolences and that of the Oireachtas disability group organisation and membership on the death of his beloved brother, Dermot, before Christmas.My colleagues in the Civil Engagement group would certainly share that sentiment.
The organisations involved with the Oireachtas disability group include: Disability Federation of Ireland, a not-for-profit association; Inclusion Ireland; Independent Living Movement Ireland; and the National Federation of Voluntary Bodies. They have played an important part. The Seanad will see in the coming weeks the tenor and results of the work done collaboratively and cohesively.
Senator O'Reilly spoke effectively and memorably about family. I am eternally grateful for the compromises made by and the support and understanding of those who are close to me, especially my wife, Liz, and my daughter, Ruth, as well as many others.
Senator Victor Boyhan made a strong reference to councillors. My eyes were opened when I met councillors. I grew up with the "Hall's Pictorial Weekly" caricature of councillors. These people may be homely and local and have particular accents and a way of expressing themselves in doing their work, but they are the bedrock of democracy at local level. I am concerned that their role is not supported as best as it could be. In parallel with councillors, we should, as Senator Freeman and others stated, keep in mind all of the organisations - including local and national groups in the various areas of civic participation - that are equally a part of our democratic process. That aspect needs to be better understood.
I am most thankful for the support I received from the Office of Parliamentary Legal Advisers, OPLA, in producing my Community Participation (Disability) (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill. OPLA provides an excellent example of the type of service that can be provided to Members of both Houses, regardless of their parties or backgrounds. I perish the thought when I consider how things were done before such a service existed.
The State, the Dáil and the Government have unanimously stated that the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is to be implemented. That puts it in a different place. It is not a case of whether we should proceed, but how we should do so. It is a technical issue now. I wish to make a number of very particular points about how to make progress. Since the convention takes the form of an international treaty that we have taken on board and due to the fact that this is both a national issue and an issue for every household - hopefully not every day but there is no escaping that someday it will be - it has to be afforded the same priority that has been afforded to other issues. When we came in here, housing and health were the issues. Northern Ireland and Brexit quickly followed. Thankfully, Northern Ireland is getting back to itself with the regeneration of the assembly. We still have Brexit to deal with and we have finally come to taking climate change seriously. Disability and all the issues relating to it must be considered as being in the first division of priorities for the State. Dá bhrí sin, the Taoiseach and his Department need to provide leadership. A Minister of State with responsibility in this area should be attached to that Department. An Oireachtas committee designed to deal with the related interlocking and interdepartmental issues should be set up. If we do not take these or similar steps, we will waste energy and resources in trying to resolve the problem.
Let me explain the point. I have spent 40 years of my adult life working in the area of disability. I had some understanding of the matter before then. There is a growing crisis in this area.Yes, there has been further money put in but we are not keeping pace with the accelerated needs. People are living longer; we can diagnose and do lots of things. We are not winning the battle. We are making a few scores but we are not scoring more than the other side is. That is the key message I want to put across. There is poverty, isolation, lack of services and ultimately a lack of hope for people. That is not party political or a slag or anything like that. It is my assessment having been 40 years involved in this area and being the chief executive of a large umbrella body. Poverty rates for people with a disability have doubled since 2011. This is not my assessment. These are all footnoted and referenced. Only 22% of people with disabilities are at work compared with a figure of 61% for others. Disability services in the round, including mental health areas, are crumbling. There are mounting deficits in organisations of over €40 million. They are in the territory of trading recklessly. In respect of the 643,000 people, or 13.5% of the population, the National Disability Authority tells us that number will be 20% of the population in six years. A lot has to change in the way things are done and the amount of resources provided. It is between the ages of 18 and 65 that 85% of people acquire their disability. There are major issues. When I started my adult, working life I spent two years in a seminary. I have just spent four years in the Seanad coming to the other end of my life. I was only thinking about this the other day. The two places were in different ways formative for me.
]]>Now is the time to see whether we can solve this problem. When it is all over, we can analyse who did what and what should not have been done. Primarily, this is about people with disabilities. Of course, some people will be happy to be in Cuisle or elsewhere. Let us get to the core of the issue. What is unique about Cuisle? There are a couple of things we must consider or acknowledge. I am probably better placed than any other Senator to comment on this matter with some authority. No other facility in the State provides the service available at Cuisle. I do a lot of travelling across Europe with European disability groups in which I am involved and I have never heard of a facility like it elsewhere in Europe. All the better if there is. What is unique about it? It provides a sense of home-from-home comfort that those who use it, particularly those with certain progressive and quite nasty conditions, crave. They are dealing with conditions that creep up on them and may affect how they look, speak and feel, as well as how people look at them. These are critical issues in their day-to-day lives. They can get out of their home and go to a place where they have the joy and comfort of other people with their condition or one like it. They can have a break and enjoy the comfort of knowing that the family members who support them around the clock are also having a break. That is only available at Cuisle. A point that should not be downgraded is that it is located in a part of the country where people deeply appreciate the unique service it provides, as has been noted.
This situation is somewhat similar to that in the 1950s when we could not afford to keep certain railway lines and stations open. Within a decade, we had a very different view. One cannot just turn it off and then come back in a year or two and turn it back on. We are at a critical point.
Many people, including those involved in human resources as I once was, refer to staff skill sets. I wish to talk about the heart and soul of the staff of Cuisle and the closeness of their relationships with those who use it. They note that Terry or Maura or somebody else has returned for another visit. They know the people who use the centre and they know their stories. They are trusted. There is nothing wrong with being professional in the Bord Fáilte sense, but the staff at Cuisle go beyond that. If Cuisle goes, so will they. Make no mistake, the people who use Cuisle cannot hang around and hope it will reopen.
I first heard of the closure when I was contacted by people with disabilities on the weekend it was announced.People with disabilities are not indifferent and are really committed to what they get there, including friendships developed over many years. Organisations like Ataxia Foundation Ireland, Spina Bifida Hydrocephalus Ireland, Huntington's Disease Association of Ireland, the Irish Heart Foundation, CanTeen Ireland and others find Cuisle to be a great place for holidays and respite care as well as for holding business meetings and AGMs. They do not get the same service in hotels, although that is not to slag off any hotel in any part of the country. The chairperson of the Huntington's Disease Association of Ireland, Mr. Thomas Lillis, said that his association's members appreciate the excellent facilities but more importantly, the "culture of kindness, care and understanding" that exists. He said that Cuisle is a place where people with Huntington's disease are not discouraged by being watched or judged, as is often the case in public spaces. People living with Huntington's disease and their families feel relaxed at Cuisle, a service offering friendship, respect and genuine warmth. This compassionate skill set would be a sad loss to those in the disability community who require this service. He went on to say that Huntington's disease is a particularly challenging neurodegenerative condition with physical, cognitive and mental health aspects. It is also genetic and each person with the Huntington's disease gene has a 50% chance of passing the disease onto others. This is one of several conditions that is highly charged in a number of different ways.
I beg the Minister of State to listen carefully to the people who argue that Cuisle has unique aspects to it which could be gone in a number of months. Once gone, it will not be possible to bring them back. I am talking here about the heart and the skill set of the staff and the local community, and that particular element of the service that it provides. It is true that money is tight but what is on the line here cannot be bought. I am holding a meeting with members who attended the Oireachtas committee meeting last week in the hope of starting the second phase of this process, namely, working out how to solve this problem. We need support. As someone who worked for the Irish Wheelchair Association and who walked the site at the time, I am confident that the association will not be found wanting in terms of finding a solution. The association is stuck on the money issue but as Senator Devine said, that is the core issue.
]]>While I knew this already, it has been said to me again over the past couple of weeks that Cuisle was a home from home. It was a safe place where the staff were people's family. As somebody with polio, it is important for me to have time out with others with polio, to give out about doctors, medics and consultants and who is the best one to go to, save in the Chairman's presence. People can exchange how they work things out and what works for them. It is more than gossip. There could be many more places using the hotel model, but something would be missing if there was no Cuisle. The association said that if it had the money to keep Cuisle going and this issue had not arisen, its intention was to keep the show on the road. We need to come back to that, whether today or after today.
There is much local, community and political interest in what Cuisle is and the value that it has had. I regularly travel to various countries in Europe. Not only is there no Cuisle anywhere else in Ireland but I have not heard of one anywhere else in Europe. It is a gem. Following up on what Deputy Kenny has said, people are raw, sour and hurting about what has happened over the past month or so. From an employer's point of view, nobody likes making people redundant. I made five people redundant in my own organisation in the past five or six months. Deputy Kenny talked about the level of crisis. It is not just that Cuisle is an issue. The Irish Wheelchair Association runs personal assistance services that it cannot keep up with. There is a crisis across the whole platform of funding for people with disabilities. Everyone in the Oireachtas knows that from the representations they get, and we try to plug holes in places.
A number of statements have been made by our witnesses. Can we find a way to have them signed off? They referred to what they have received from the LEADER programme and such. Can we find a way to agree what playing pitch we are on and to confirm what the IWA said about the sums of money, such as the €400,000? There is great interest in solving this issue here and people with disabilities keenly want it to be solved. Any chief executive such as myself cannot speak for an organisation's board when the board has not yet made a decision but has to play the ball he or she is given. The reason for the decision related to funding. If the issue of funding can be decommissioned, there is a possibility that we could get back in action. I do not want to overplay that but this needs other players.
It is clear the people in government and in the HSE have not yet put their hands in their pockets for the money, or even returned to say the figure is inflated and that it will cost only €500,000. Is that fair to say? Has anybody contradicted the figure of €1.15 million?
]]>I now raise an issue that I have previously made him aware of. I still have little confidence in the NTA, which is shared by many with disabilities, on its commitment to transport for all. I may be paranoid but a leaflet on BusConnects came through my letterbox recently. I do not see any symbol or reference to people with disabilities in the document, which sets out the revised plan. The front of the leaflet has four people of working age, two females and two males. It talks about the service being for the future. My open question to the NTA is: is it concerned about the future of people with disabilities and mobility impairments in respect of its brief? I could recite many examples, and the Minister will be aware of them, but I wish to keep this on the agenda.
In his opening remarks the Minister stated:
The game-changer for rail in the greater Dublin area is the DART expansion programme. Next year, I expect to receive a business case in respect of this multi-billion euro investment. It is a very exciting project which will effectively double the capacity of the greater Dublin area rail network compared with today. When it is finished, the DART really will serve the entire Dublin area, as its name suggests.
Perhaps I am being particular but I am concerned about whether it will serve the entire Dublin population and the people who travel around the city who have disabilities and mobility impairments? That is our challenge.While I acknowledge the Government has committed to so doing, in light of what I have said about the National Transport Authority, NTA, it is important that we underline and take that issue more strongly on board.
With reference to childhood obesity and health, sport has had a huge part to play for people with disabilities going back to the late 1950s and 1960s when Ireland participated in the first paraplegic Olympics to run in parallel with the regular Olympics in Rome in 1960. The purpose of accessible public transport is to get people somewhere and that includes to sporting events, as spectators and increasingly as participants. I am keen to hear what the Minister has to say about making sure that facilities are improved for people with disabilities to be able to participate actively in sport. People with disabilities have to go through really hard-knuckle rehabilitation in the National Rehabilitation Hospital in Dún Laoghaire and other places but sport too is rehabilitative and copper-fastens people's participation in a community. It has its own important part to play. Transport can make sure a person gets there or does not get there.
Following the lead this Minister has given, to use a sporting analogy, the ball is at the toe of many other Ministers to make sure that if people can use public transport, there is somewhere they can go and participate. The Minister has met Padraic Moran, a wheelchair user, on several occasions when he was a witness at the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport. He is a young man who, unusually for people with disabilities, has employment, and he lives in Bray. He has had episodic problems using the DART, and problems with the maintenance of his wheelchair, which go back to the health services. He is an international sportsman and has represented Ireland playing boccia. The connections between sport and transport are critical issues for people with disabilities and to help us implement the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, UNCRPD. What is the Minister's ambition for the next 12 months for people with disabilities? Senator O'Mahony talked about doubling spending in sport over the next decade. What does the Minister intend that to be like for people with disabilities?
]]>Nobody can do those things on their own and that is where family, friends and support come in. The people who are behind the veil and not in the public space in the same way are the makers or breakers of somebody's public participation. I say that to underline the part families play very quietly but consistently over the years.
Rory's period as Cathaoirleach of the Seanad coincided with what was, in many ways, a high-water mark for people with disabilities in Ireland because of two Bills that came through this House at the time. There was the Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Act 2004 and the Disability Act 2005. There is no doubt that Rory Kiely, as Cathaoirleach, had a hand in and an important part to play in ensuring the Acts were well steered through the Upper House.
I know many of the people in the Visitors Gallery. A fair few of them were fellow travellers of Rory on the political stage. That the Visitors Gallery is full is a great tribute to the man. Not all of those in the Visitors Gallery are from the Fianna Fail family, which says a lot about him.
Many people do not become household names but are the backbone of political and civil life in this country and in other countries. Rory Kiely was one of them. He played an invaluable role in political life and political service. May he rest in peace and may his family have the comfort of knowing the part he played in Irish political life.
]]>I have a particular interest in with disabilities. In some of the contributions, I heard phrases such as "public realm", "cross-departmental" - I will come back to Scotland's Towns Partnership - and "participatory design". We then moved on from that. The public realm is key to putting heart back into towns and villages. We need a public space which allows equal access for everybody. That is vital. I ask the contributors to make some comments on the following point. There is a particular challenge for people with disabilities. A lot of work has been done over recent decades in terms of their emancipation and not keeping them away from everything. We do not need a big building outside of town. The very fact that someone cannot live in a house that is accessible is the very core of the issue, but there is also a problem if they cannot thread from that house into a community. There are many elements to this. Some of it relates to traffic, some to planning, and some to services and so on. As the witnesses will be aware, the Dáil decided unanimously almost two years ago to ratify the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Ireland will now implement that convention. The impact of this on our discussion today could be summed up in two words, namely, "public realm".
Our guests from Free Market also mentioned cross-departmental measures. The local authority is at the epicentre of pulling in many other public bodies. It does not replicate the work of An Garda or the educational authorities. Local authorities are in pole position to pull all of these bodies into conversations with regard to public planning and so on. The work of our guests and their organisations also comes into play. In what ways can they ensure that conversation features in the work they do? That is a particular question and challenge.
Ms McHugh made a point on burnout. I was in a place called Newcastle, which is on the Tipperary-Waterford boundary, on Sunday. I am still reeling from the positive work of that community. It identified a number of young people with severe disabilities and decided to do something. I admit it needs the HSE and service providers to play ball.
The hall was full before the meeting started. We could look down from the stage and see people outside the door. Those of us involved in politics or voluntary organisations do not see that too often. I give that example to set up my question. It has struck me over the years that some towns and communities have a certain inherent quality while others are like dead ducks. We could throw buckets of money at them but it might not be spent well. Do we need to look at a community's sense of get up and go, its capacity to get on with things?
Senator Coffey mentioned the pressures on young families. There are not enough hours in the day, especially between Monday and Friday. At weekends, these parents are carting kids to all sorts of things left, right and centre. Do some communities need pre-development work to build their capacity? The groups represented here have initiatives up and running. I do not think this concern applies to them. I am talking about pre-development work that gives people the self-confidence and the skills to do things for themselves. Local authorities and other bodies would then have fertile ground for their work.
Finally I note that the Scottish Government has a different system to ours. Our system of government is interdepartmental. The Scottish structure is closer to being more cohesive. Are the Scots in a better position to do things more cohesively? I think they are. Do we have a problem? Are we waiting for Basil Chubb's advice from 1968 about 15 different Governments in Ireland? Are we wasting time? Do we need to fix our structures in order to put real oomph into this and many other issues?
]]>The Minister of State will recall he was here at the end of June discussing the summer economic statement. He made a commitment to me that he would consider having an annexe to the budget, a citizen's guide for people with disabilities, that would outline whether things are on the up, on the way down or becalmed. I have not seen such a document produced. I have seen, The Budget in Brief — A Citizen's Guide to Budget 2020, and I did not find what I was looking for in that document. It is more than interesting that the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and the Department of Finance did not give us the disability inclusion CRPD balance sheet to indicate whether circumstances are improving, static or declining.
I wish to mention a sample of the helpful measures in the budget. These include measures on housing, children, health, healthcare staff and professionals, carers, special needs education, the Christmas bonus and the living-alone allowance. It is only fair to mention these. In the extensive section towards the beginning of the Budget Statement, the Minister was hedging in his analysis, and rightly so. He was suggesting that if such an event happens, then that will happen, meaning we will have money to spare, for example. Such analysis was not brought to anything related to disability or the wider social inclusion areas, including health, housing, education and income supports. I carried out a vox pop today among a number of organisations. The Irish Foster Care Association continues to receive calls from foster carers who provide care for children in foster care who have diagnosed or undiagnosed disabilities. They report a lack of services and physical aids, such as wheelchairs and buggies.This is for people who are taking on the job of fostering children.
According to Threshold, there needs to be a rebalancing of expenditure on homeless services and supports in order to reflect the Government's commitment to homelessness prevention. There are no new or innovative measures to address housing, affordability or prevent homelessness. Only 5% of the 2018 expenditure relating to homelessness related to prevention measures, while over 81% was spent on emergency accommodation. The Irish Deaf Society is concerned that the Government is not making adequate preparations to live up to commitments in the Irish Sign Language Act 2017. It is worried that the number of interpreters will be restricted in the context of the new provisions for public servants, etc., and that there are too few Irish sign language teachers to facilitate the scaling up of provision.
The Central Remedial Clinic welcomes the Minister's desire to help and protect the most vulnerable citizens and comments that perhaps he needs to stop talking about protecting the most vulnerable and start talking about serving and empowering them. The increased allocation in respect of special education is most welcome but an opportunity has been missed in the context of supporting third level and assisting people in moving on to employment and employment supports. A spokesperson for Enable Ireland stated that it sounds as if there is very little targeted towards people with disabilities and welcomes the general reductions in charges, extension of the thresholds relating to medical cards, the provision of additional healthcare professionals, etc. There was little done in respect of housing, with people with disabilities having to compete for scarce resources. Increases in the cost of running a car will hit people's pockets if some remedial measure are not taken.
Inclusion Ireland states that the Government had an opportunity to take action in budget 2020 to promote rights and equality for people with disabilities and to advance compliance with the CRPD. Unfortunately, there is little in this budget that will facilitate any real change for people with disabilities.
The Disability Federation of Ireland states that in the context of people with disabilities, Brexit is just this year's excuse for failing to stop a form of marginalisation which makes us the forgotten vulnerable. The federation adds that no one is more vulnerable than people with disabilities because the poverty rates relating to them have more than doubled since 2011, from 11% in that year to 26% in 2016. These people remain uniquely exposed and unprotected as the spiralling poverty rates show. That is merely a vox pop.
I need not tell people with disabilities where this budget leaves them and that they should be worried and circumspect in the context of events next year, particularly, those to which the budget will give rise. This Government commenced its period in office with a housing crisis and a health crisis. That would have been enough for any Government. Then, only a few months into its term, we had the prospect of Brexit visited upon us. Shortly thereafter came the suspension of the Northern Ireland Assembly and the risks relating thereto and now we have climate change. Between the latter two came the ratification of the CRPD and Ireland stating that it would get on its bike and implement the convention. Why does disability not feature in the first division of priorities for and challenges faced by this Government? The budget does not acknowledge or honour the commitment to ratification. Something needs to seriously change in the run-up to the general election.
Finally, those on the Government side may feel a sting from what I have said. Those on the opposing side may have welcome smiles on their faces. I am not trying to please one and upset the other. Let the House remember that the question to be addressed is whether 643,000 people and their families will be heartened or disheartened by being written out of this budget. While disability is a priority issue along with others, it has not been name-tagged as such. There is not one paragraph on the Government commitment to ratify the convention. The Department that put the budget together could not give a state of play for people with disabilities following the budget. It could not provide a disability inclusion balance sheet. There is no mention or evidence of equality-proofing measures of the budget generally mentioned already which would have included people with disabilities. I thank the Minister of State for listening.
]]>The programme is successful. Students grow in confidence and learn to be independent, get a job or go on to further education. These are people who have already had it tough, and removing the allowance is making it tougher. The Minister for Health, the Minister of State at the Department of Health with responsibility for disabilities and representatives of the HSE have all said the savings being made will be allocated to day service. Day service is a separate, distinct and necessary programme; it is not either-or. The Minister of State, Deputy Finian McGrath, said the abolition of this allowance was about equality and equity. We need to remember that the disability allowance is an allowance to keep body and soul together for these people. The rehabilitative allowance is to respect and support the commitment of people to undergo learning to move into employment independence in the community and away from reliance on the disability allowance. I ask the Leader to invite the Minister of State to the House as soon as possible to explain his perverse notion of equality and how he justified robbing one group of people with disabilities to plug a funding gap in this year's budget.
In a related, but more hopeful and joyous development regarding disability, today is Make Way Day. Last week, the Garda assistant commissioner with responsibility for roads policing, David Sheahan, joined the Disability Federation of Ireland to ask that drivers consider the needs of people with disabilities. He went on to make some very pointed remarks. Footpaths are for pedestrians. Drivers who pull up on footpaths are breaking the law as well as blocking the path for people with limited mobility.Someone in a motorised wheelchair must either go home or risk his or her life on the public road getting around a parked vehicle. Neither is acceptable to the Garda. Disabled parking bays are for people with disabilities and able-bodied people parking on them is against the law. These bays assist disabled people in going about their daily business. The Garda roads policing unit will increase its vigilance and lower its tolerance of footpath parking and parking in disabled bays not only for Make Way Day but for all 365 days of the year in support of the campaign.
I commend the Disability Federation of Ireland, the Garda roads policing unit, the local authorities, councillors and a range of public and private bodies who have got behind this. People with disabilities are out on the streets today to claim and reclaim their streets and pavements and to do that freely and easily.
I was not here the other day when the Leader spoke about the death of my beloved brother, Jim, and I thank him for that.
]]>We put a great deal of stock in democratic elections - a matter about which Senator Mullen spoke so well - and electing those who are absolutely attuned to the real issues people face. Seanad elections are, under the Constitution, absolutely and umbilically connected to Dáil elections. If one asks people if they know how individuals are elected to the Seanad, one will find they do not have a clue. A person is the loneliest man or woman in the country when trying to get elected to this House. People just do not know what we do to get here. I ask people to reflect on the fact that the election relating to this House is similar to what one might expect to happen when seeking admission to a secret society.
There is much more to be said. I have enjoyed and learned from the contributions I have heard. We can be reformative in the way we behave in the House. I have made some suggestions in that regard and on how the next Taoiseach would deal with the question of his or her nominees. A number of practical things can be done.
]]>The behaviour of the Members of that office has altered, in their vision and in their way of operating. There will be right and left, and this and that, but they have had a better or a different way of seeing their role - the two Marys and the present incumbent, President Michael D.Higgins. How I and each of us behave makes a difference. We could do a number of things in that regard.
I return to the issue of cost. If we flip the coin, what is the value? There are multiples of extra value to be got out of this House. We are just chugging along. We have not had a service in decades. That is where the question has to go.
Parties have a real problem with this House. It is like a cash cow. Every Senator who signs a party pledge is an asset, an income and a resource to that party. This is a fact. That is valuable and if I had that in my back pocket, I would not want to hand it over. Without embarrassment, the key parties in this regard need to sit down and find a way to unlock that.
There is another issue, which may be closer to the bone. Some 20 to 21 of the 43 vocational seats come through nominating bodies.
]]>