Kathleen O'Meara (Labour)

I too welcome the Minister of State to the House and do not doubt his personal commitment in this area. As public representatives, many Members of this and the other House regularly meet people who have ongoing difficulty negotiating their way around the system. As disabled people or as members of families with a disabled person, they are struggling and continue to struggle to get what they need.

In terms of this very congratulatory motion, the first paragraph refers to the ongoing commitment of the Government to put a programme of action in place to support and reinforce equal participation in society by people with disabilities. What first came to mind when I read that was the physically disabled person's grant. Only a year ago when I was a member of North Tipperary County Council, as it was then, the county council was forced to suspend the operation of the disabled person's grant because of inability to fund it. This also happened to many other county councils. The reason was that the one third share which the council was to put towards the grant amounted to such a large amount of money that funds simply did not exist to meet the commitment. The county council was, therefore, forced to suspend the grant until such time as the outstanding €1 million which had been allocated was found. The pleas of the county manager to the Department fell on deaf ears and this happened all over the country.

The people who suffered were people with disabilities who needed, for example, to have a downstairs bathroom installed, or who needed to have their bathroom adapted following an accident or as a result of having a person with a disability or an elderly person who had become incapacitated in their home. Those are the people who suffered at a time when, as we were constantly told, we were experiencing great economic prosperity. In light of the failure of this Government to provide the necessary funding, despite the pleas of county councils, I fundamentally disagree with the first paragraph of this motion, and I have previously raised this issue in this House. What was required amounted to a couple of million euro, and the difference it would have made to people is extraordinary. That represents an absence of commitment to equality, an absence of commitment to people with a disability. This was not about rights, it was about a service and a promise made in the context of the grant scheme that should have been properly structured. That promise was broken. I am glad the scheme is back in action in the county council but I know, from speaking to my colleagues around the country, that problems still exist.

Another example is the one Senator O'Toole gave regarding people having to obtain independent assessments of their children who have autism, which are not accepted by the Department. I know of a number of such cases. The final example I will give relates to a case with which I have been dealing for months. It is the situation of a young adult with severe disability who is in an institution in which people have taken very good care of him. He needs are such that he requires quite a high level of care. The institution is unable to provide this because it does not get the necessary funding. The health board provides funding to the school in question on a three-monthly basis because it must beg from the Department which gives funding for three months. The cycle continues and at the end of every three months I get the inevitable call, as do many other public representatives, from the parents who have been told by the school that their 22 year old son must come home. It would not be physically possible for that family to cope with that person. He needs two staff with him all day so one can imagine what is required. Furthermore, his mother is a widow with other children. That is what is happening. This has been occurring only in the past 18 months and is the result of the effective cutbacks after the 2002 general election. This is yet another example of a failure to keep promises and to ensure equal participation in society by people with disabilities.

There is no question but that this Bill is welcome. I have read the Bill only once and cannot say I understand it. It is very dense and difficult to understand, and the devil is in the detail. I look forward to the debate on the Bill in this House. There is no doubt that it represents a turning point.

When I worked with the 1992-97 Government, the former Minister for Equality and Law Reform, Mr. Mervyn Taylor, had a very strong commitment to people with disabilities. He was the Minister who first ensured that the issue of rights was put on the agenda. Prior to that we as a society, and we must all take responsibility for this, did not see people with disabilities as having rights. They were seen as charitable cases. If we had the money they got it. However, up to the early 1990s we did not have the money and they got nothing. They were at the bottom of the heap, silent behind closed doors, often in institutions or in families that were simply unable to fight for them and all of whose energy was going into coping. That changed because of the decision by the lobby groups, which must be commended, to ensure that their issues were put on the agenda. They are very effective lobby groups and must be congratulated.

Conditions have changed in the past number of years. However, I would not be surprised that anybody should hesitate to believe the promises of this or any Government but particularly this one, given its recent history of broken promises, when it states this Bill is the be all and end all of the situation. If I were in that position, I would say let us wait and see exactly what this Bill amounts to.

It is very substantial and welcome legislation but the key issue, as others have pointed out, is resources. A framework can be in place which is aspirational, but nothing can happen unless resources are committed to it. The Taoiseach and other Ministers delivered fine words at the launch of the Bill the other day. The Minister referred to the whole new framework in terms of funding. That is very welcome, but we will wait and see. I look forward to debating the Bill in the House. Progress has been made but we have a long way to go to reach a position where, in the words of the Government motion, there is real, equal participation in society by people with disabilities.