Katherine Zappone (Independent)

I welcome the Minister of State to the House again. I thank and acknowledge the leadership of Senator Mary Ann O'Brien in our group in terms of this issue and her passion for it and thank Senator Marie-Louise O'Donnell for supporting her. In fact, all of us in the group are involved in putting the motion forward as we all believe it is extremely important.

I agree with Senator Quinn on the question of the need for an amendment to this motion. As Senator van Turnhout asked, why should it not be a Seanad motion? Senator Barrett has just asked the same question. In support of this. I have questions for the Minister of State. I know he is committed to this issue, but so are these women and this man. I understand the Minister of State needs to stay with his party and I agree that is as it should be. However, our focus is on inclusion and participation and it is on that our motion is based. The Government focus in its amendment is on the budgetary and fiscal situation. However, with our focus on inclusion and participation, we also recognise the economic climate. The Government focus starts out with the budgetary and fiscal situation, although it does include support for people with disability. Our focus on inclusion and participation is the focus required with regard to pushing forward a rights-based approach and this is something I know the Minister of State would agree with, as would all of us in the House.

A rights-based approach to inclusion and participation is important across the life cycle, for babies, children and older people. Hopefully, we will all become older people, but as many of us know, we are more than likely to have a disability when we become older. Therefore, this is about us, although some of us have a disability younger. Our focus is on a sense of urgency. We want to see more movement sooner. The focus of the Government amendment is, as I read it, "steady as she goes". It is not that the Government disagrees with us, but it just wants to keep the same steady line. Our focus is on publishing the value for money report and reviewing the disability services, but the Government focus is on pointing out how great it is for being committed to this issue. We focus on the need for a reformed rights-based way forward, but the Government focus in its conclusion is that there is no need for change because everything is going okay.