Mark Daly (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I support my colleagues in this motion. There are 600,000 people with disabilities of one form or another in the country, and they should be protected in the best way possible. That amounts to 18.5% of the population having some form of disability, and the manner in which the Government gives support is critical. To clarify the matter for my learned friend opposite, mismanagement in the health services is an issue, with budgets going over every year since the current Government took office. Extra funding is being sought for the running of the health service because the Minister, Deputy Reilly, has not been able to grapple with it or get on top of the brief, despite being in the Department for two and a half years.

People with special needs, those needing resource teachers and people with intellectual disabilities have all had services cut, with allowances reduced as well despite promises they would be protected. There is the issue of the health services, its funding and the fact that it is unable to manage its budget, with continuous overruns. That means the Minister is required to seek extra funding to pay for what are mostly wages.

We have cases in Kerry in which funding, instead of being given to people with Down's syndrome and their families, is diverted to care providers and others for speech and physical therapy. That is not cost-effective and does not work. That funding is going to pay lighting, heating and administration costs, whereas all those people need is services, not all the ancillary items they are covering.

In light of the fact that this is Irish Sign Language awareness week and we have this motion before us, the Minister might make his Cabinet colleagues aware that we are in breach of international agreements to which we signed up, such as the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the Good Friday Agreement, regarding members of the deaf community and the fact that they are not given the same access to Government services as other citizens.