Maria Corrigan (Fianna Fail)

I move:

'That Seanad Éireann welcomes the announcement that a new National Advocacy Service for people with disabilities is to be set up to provide independent, representative advocacy services for people with disabilities from January 2011.

I welcome the Minister to the Chamber. This is a very important step forward for people with disabilities and I welcome its announcement. As Members may be aware, there had been a recommendation to establish such a service for people with disabilities, which led to approximately 46 pilot schemes being operated throughout the country. Following a review of those pilot schemes recommendations were made, a number of which have been taken on board by the Minister in his announcement. Significantly, the pilot scheme demonstrated that where advocates were put in place it was possible for them to gain an understanding of services for people with disabilities, to support those people to understand their entitlements, to draw together the range of services they need to support them in moving from institutional living into the community and to support them in their interactions with their families. In other words there was an opportunity for people with disabilities for the first time to have access to somebody who was completely on their side, who was only there for them, and whose only motivation and interest was the well-being of the person with whom they were working, which is very significant. Despite the very tough economic times, it is very welcome for the Minister to be able to announce that it is still intended to proceed in January 2011 with establishing this national service.

We are all very aware - none more so than the Members of this House - that people with disabilities can get left behind or forgotten about. The establishment of a national advocacy service will help to counteract this. A number of points were made in the review of the 46 pilot schemes, including comments about geographical services and organisational structure, and I have no doubt the Minister intends to take them on board. However, I was particularly struck by the comments in the report regarding the way complex cases could be dealt with. One of the issues that highlights is that, at the time, it had not been possible to implement one of the original recommendations, namely, the establishment of a personal advocacy service which would seek to work with individuals who would have either a complex case or complex needs. I note in the Minister's announcement and in details we have been able to glean so far that the Minister is indicating that it is intended that aspects of this personal advocacy service will be incorporated. I ask the Minister to elaborate on the form that will take and the way we might see it come into action when replying.

One of the original recommendations would have pointed to a programme of community visitors for people in residential settings with cognitive intellectual disabilities. These are a particularly vulnerable group of people. I welcome the role that the national advocacy service will have the potential to play for those people. We all know of individuals who are living either in community group home settings or in institutional settings who perhaps do not have any visitors from one end of the year to another. I refer to visitors who are specific to them and who come in to say "Hello" to them and see how they are doing. That applies as much to community group homes as it does to institutional settings.

Originally, when we moved towards de-institutionalisation and established community group homes we spoke about community group homes as if they were the panacea to everything. We know they are not. In many cases, even with the best intentions, they have ended up becoming mini-institutions in the community where people do not necessarily know their neighbours or interact with their community.

One of the dangers of that, particularly for people with intellectual disabilities, is the isolation. One can be in the heart of the community and still be isolated. Having a situation where advocates can be appointed and can visit, and whose sole interest is the person with an intellectual disability, is a powerful protection.

In the past number of years, because of the number of sad, traumatic and profoundly disturbing cases of abuse across the board that have come to our attention, we must be aware that people with intellectual disabilities are particularly vulnerable. The role of an advocate is an added protection measure. Having somebody who is not part of the system come in and out of a place changes the dynamic and increases the protection available. I note that we are able to do this within existing resources because of the way we will organise it and that points to something that is very important.

Sometimes the work we need to undertake in the area of disabilities is not all about money. There is much work that needs to be done, particularly if we are to see the purpose of this through to its end. This is only the starting point. If we want an advocacy service to work as effectively as we intend it to, we must address a number of other issues. I do not have time to go into them now but there are two in particular that I ask the Minister to raise with his colleagues.

The first is the need for the Mental Capacity and Guardianship Bill to come before the House. Without that Bill, any advocate who is acting in good faith on behalf of somebody with a disability, particularly with an intellectual disability, will come up against barriers on occasions that they do not need to come up against. There are certain basic rights the Minister and I take for granted that people with intellectual disabilities cannot access currently because of our outdated laws regarding their status in our society.

On the day the Minister made this announcement he made a striking comment. He stated:

The new National Advocacy Service will give a voice to people with disabilities who are isolated in the community or who are living in residential institutions and who cannot represent themselves. The Service will protect their rights, help them gain their entitlements, obtain a fair hearing and make positive changes in their quality of life.

That is an important statement but if we want to deliver on that, the Mental Capacity and Guardianship Bill must follow this measure. It is such important legislation it must come before us in sufficient time to allow us consider it and debate it. It will have to link in with many other existing pieces of legislation. It will be extraordinarily complex but it is necessary if we are serious about people with disabilities taking their equal role as citizens in our society.

The second issue that must be addressed is the supports we put in place for vulnerable adults within the criminal justice system. In terms of wanting an advocate to come in and play their role, and particularly in complex cases, if it is a case that there is something untoward or if a vulnerable adult has been exposed to either a criminal act or to an act that has done them wrong and we want to take it further, there are no supports currently within the criminal justice system to do that. An advocate can go to the Garda Síochána on behalf of a vulnerable adult and I guarantee that in 99 cases out of 100, it will stand still because we have not put the measures in place within the system that will support people with disabilities either to be witnesses, to give evidence or even to have their story taken credibly. I am aware that we cannot put those supports in place without having the Mental Capacity and Guardianship Bill in place but these are important protections.

At a life-changing juncture we brought in extensive, realistic and practical supports that allowed children who were victims of abuse engage and interact with the criminal justice system. It gave them the support they needed to give their statements to the gardaí and to give testimony within the courts system. We must be doing something similar with vulnerable adults because currently they fall between the two stools. With that will come all the other additional supports and training that the gardaí, for example, will need to have to allow them take their statements.

In seeking to ensure that the most fundamental and basic of rights are afforded to somebody with disabilities so they can take their place as an equal citizen within our society, it is not all about money. There are actions we could be taking currently within the political system that could have a profound and real impact on people's day to day quality of life.

I congratulate the Minister on the announcement. I see it as an important step forward but to ensure it achieves its potential we must follow up on what happens to the advocates afterwards. When replying I would appreciate if the Minister could provide some additional details on the points I mentioned earlier.