Niall Ó Brolcháin (Green Party)

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Áine Brady, and I am delighted she is present for this important debate. I also welcome the national advocacy service which will be introduced in January 2011. It is important to recognise that it will be a step forward, but nevertheless we should not get carried away. It is no more than a step in the right direction. It will not solve all of the problems for people with disabilities.

We have had an interesting debate about adopting a rights-based approach, individual education plans and needs-based assessments. The Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Ó Cuív, is correct; there is not a Member in the House who does not wish to move towards the system outlined. The EPSEN Act is something for which I fought and I welcome the comments of Senator O'Toole. It is crucial.

As someone who has been involved in dealing with people with autism, I have seen how early intervention works. The way individual education plans are produced is far from perfect but early intervention works. Senator O'Toole is correct; it would be progress if we were to obviate the need for advocacy by ensuring people were able to advocate for themselves from an early age by providing a proper speech therapy service or whatever other service is required, as the lack of such services could prevent them advocating for themselves at a later stage. That said, it is clear there are many people with disabilities who need an advocate. I presume that is the reason an advocacy service is being provided.

I very much welcome what the Minister said about ensuring a regional balance. That is important. However, I urge him to assess the situation because there is always a great difficulty in providing a service in all parts of the country. One often finds that geographical realities bite. I refer to people living on the Aran Islands or in County Donegal, for example. If a service in County Leitrim was the closest in terms of advocacy, this could present a difficulty, whereas if there was a cluster of advocates in Dublin, the situation would be enhanced. Therefore, we need to assess the effectiveness of the service that will be introduced in 2011 from the point of view of geographic considerations.

I support Senator Corrigan's call for the fast-tracking of the Mental Capacity and Guardianship Bill. That is important and the Bill should be introduced as soon as possible.

The advocacy service is due to be introduced in January. We will need to carefully monitor how it is working.

The point was made to me today that we must look at legislative power to enforce the rights of the advocates. The rights are centred on the individual with a disability. I would hate to see a situation where an advocate is refused access to a meeting under any guise. Advocates must have the same powers under legislation as the person himself or herself. It is crucial we ensure advocates have proper access to all necessary facilities.

My party supports the primary care model, where we do all we can within the community. It is the right way forward in health care and works in other countries. There must, however, be proper linkage between the primary care teams and the advocates. Advocacy is not all a matter of health, some of it is a matter of rights, campaigning for those cannot campaign for themselves for basic services.

It is important we move to a rights-based approach to health. The Minister spoke about the funding-based approach and we cannot have a system that is not robust when there is a recession. We must look at the necessary services and it is then a question for Government to ensure those systems are delivered. If we must cut services because of funding instead of looking at different ways of delivering those services, we will find that services will be put in place and then removed, something no one wants to see.

We must look at this from the service user's point of view, from a person-centred approach and the rights-based approach. That does not necessarily mean a person has a right to a huge level of expenditure but that he or she has a right to a service being put in place. Those are not quite the same, although I accept that funding is always necessary to provide services.

We should not get carried away with negativity in the disability arena. We should be positive about people's abilities and about the fact that a new service is being put in place in January 2011. We should seek to make that work no matter who is in Government in the future. We should build on what is being achieved in January 2011. I commend the motion to the House.