Results 6,641-6,660 of 10,833 for speaker:Anne Rabbitte

Written Answers — Department of Health: Disability Services Provision (5 Nov 2020)

Anne Rabbitte: The Programme for Government, Our Shared Future, recognises the need to improve services for both children and adults with disabilities through better implementation and by working together across Government in a better way. The Government commits to prioritising early diagnosis and access to services for children and ensuring that the most effective interventions are provided for each...

Flood Prevention Policies: Motion [Private Members] (4 Nov 2020)

Anne Rabbitte: I thank the Ministers of State, Deputies O'Donovan and Peter Burke, for sharing time with me. I also thank the Rural Independent Group for tabling this motion and giving us the opportunity to discuss it. I am pleased its members are present to hear my contribution. I thank the Minister of State, Deputy O'Donovan, for his contribution last night and again this morning when he clearly...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Disability Matters: National Disability Inclusion Strategy: Discussion (4 Nov 2020)

Anne Rabbitte: I thank the Chair and members for inviting me. I look forward to working with the joint committee which has been established specifically to deal with disability matters. Unfortunately, many people with disabilities and their families saw schools, day services and respite services close during the pandemic. I completely understand that people might feel they have been forgotten but I...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Disability Matters: National Disability Inclusion Strategy: Discussion (4 Nov 2020)

Anne Rabbitte: In the budget that was outlined, €100 million has been left aside. One of my priorities related to respite, for both adult service users and children. Many members will be aware that during Covid, some of our respite centres were used as isolation hubs. One of the first tasks I took on with the HSE involved ensuring that those isolation hubs would be stood down and could return to...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Disability Matters: National Disability Inclusion Strategy: Discussion (4 Nov 2020)

Anne Rabbitte: On the congregated settings, I answered a recent question by the Deputy, which may have been a Topical Issue matter in the Dáil. We are committed as a Government and it is in the programme for Government. At present, there are approximately 2,000 people who have to be decongregated. There is provision within the budget to support this. This year alone, even with Covid, 66 people...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Disability Matters: National Disability Inclusion Strategy: Discussion (4 Nov 2020)

Anne Rabbitte: I thank the Senator for her comments and good wishes. I will take on board what she said regarding point eight - training, support, sensitivities and how people can communicate life-changing events along with breaking through the bureaucracy. This is why I am Batwoman alongside Robin here at the moment. I am trying to break through that bureaucracy for the simple reason that it is not just...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Disability Matters: National Disability Inclusion Strategy: Discussion (4 Nov 2020)

Anne Rabbitte: Regarding primary medical certificates, following a court hearing in July, the decision was taken to suspend all further applications. The reason, with which I agree, was that the criteria were so narrow. Deputy Canney and I have constituency colleagues in Galway who advocated very recently about it. It is very limiting. A blind person can never apply for a primary medical certificate. I...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Disability Matters: National Disability Inclusion Strategy: Discussion (4 Nov 2020)

Anne Rabbitte: That is correct and we will take that on board together. I said earlier that employment is one of my focuses. There was a commitment to the programme for Government to increase the number of staff in the public sector. It is one of the five themed areas I will be working on.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Disability Matters: National Disability Inclusion Strategy: Discussion (4 Nov 2020)

Anne Rabbitte: That builds on the back of the ability access programme which received funding under the then Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection three years ago. The feedback from that programme has been very positive. During the summer, the Minister and I also met the Ombudsman, Peter Tyndall, who addressed the issue of people with a disability aged under 65 years who were living...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Disability Matters: National Disability Inclusion Strategy: Discussion (4 Nov 2020)

Anne Rabbitte: I thank Deputy Canney. I agree with him that there is much not to be proud of and much change needs to happen. He is dead right. Coming from Galway county and from east Galway in particular, when people do not have respite services for children and they must ship them down to Limerick to get an overnight stay, it is not good enough. Unfortunately, we are not unique. That is the sad part...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Disability Matters: National Disability Inclusion Strategy: Discussion (4 Nov 2020)

Anne Rabbitte: The Senator referred to holding other Departments to account and asked how I would do so through my chairing of the steering group. I have a solution to that issue, which I discussed at a previous meeting of the committee. Every second meeting of the steering group will be thematic. I will take a thematic approach at those meetings. For example, if the issue of transport is being...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Disability Matters: National Disability Inclusion Strategy: Discussion (4 Nov 2020)

Anne Rabbitte: I will discuss the local matters outside the committee if that is okay.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Disability Matters: National Disability Inclusion Strategy: Discussion (4 Nov 2020)

Anne Rabbitte: We are still working on the case we discussed in the Commencement Matter, as the Senator knows. Hopefully, we will get a meeting with the Minister of State, Deputy Madigan, to try to progress it. I welcome the Senator's comments on the fact that it is rights based. That is where the Minister and I are coming from and it is the reason we are excited about it moving to the new Department....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Disability Matters: National Disability Inclusion Strategy: Discussion (4 Nov 2020)

Anne Rabbitte: I will respond to Senator Alice-Mary Higgins first. I will speak to some points and the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, will address the legal side. The Senator talked about community participation. This year, for the first time ever in the budget, we managed to get a line which acknowledges the funding for disability community integration. Even though it was within a health budget, we will be...

Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate: Speech and Language Therapy (3 Nov 2020)

Anne Rabbitte: Deputy Funchion is right about therapists. Budget 2021 included a commitment to recruit an additional 100 therapists. That number will include speech and language therapists, occupational therapists and physiotherapists. I want to have fully staffed children network disability teams, of which there will be 91 throughout the country. However, there is no point in having leads if we do not...

Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate: Speech and Language Therapy (3 Nov 2020)

Anne Rabbitte: I thank the Deputy for raising this very important issue. It is not the first time that community healthcare organisation, CHO, 5 has been mentioned by her or her colleagues. The HSE and its funded disability partners will continue to provide therapeutic supports in line with the public health guidance and direction while also bearing in mind the availability of staffing resources. Some...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Disability Services Provision (3 Nov 2020)

Anne Rabbitte: Almost nine years ago, the Time to Move on from Congregated Settings Report identified approximately 4,000 people with disabilities living in congregated type settings. The 2011 Report expected that decongregation could happen at a much faster pace than was actually possible. Since 2014, the Transforming Lives Programme provides the framework for implementation and for putting policy into...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Disability Services Provision (3 Nov 2020)

Anne Rabbitte: The HSE began planning for the resumption of adult disability day services in May, and services have now resumed nationwide. Public health guidance was specifically developed to underpin the safe resumption of services, and this guidance was published in July. The guidance developed to support the resumption of adult day services has had to take account of social distancing rules which...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Disability Services Provision (3 Nov 2020)

Anne Rabbitte: The Government is committed to providing services and supports for people with disabilities which will empower them to live independent lives, provide greater independence in accessing the services they choose, and enhance their ability to tailor the supports required to meet their needs and plan their lives. The Disability Capacity Review which was prepared by the Department of...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Disability Services Funding (3 Nov 2020)

Anne Rabbitte: The Government is committed to providing services and supports for people with disabilities which will empower them to live independent lives, provide greater independence in accessing the services they choose, and enhance their ability to tailor the supports required to meet their needs and plan their lives As the Deputy's question relates to service matters, I have arranged for the...