Marc MacSharry (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Kathleen Lynch, the representatives from the Disability Federation of Ireland and the Centre for Independent Living. As much as I would like to think that the public takes a great interest in the debates in the Seanad, I think we have the databases of the Disability Federation of Ireland and the Centre for Independent Living to thank for the e-mails we have received and the interest in the debate, for which we are all grateful.

The Fianna Fáil group will be supporting the motion so as not to detract in any way from the shared commitment of everybody in the House to make the current situation better. Some of the choices made during the period of austerity in the past number of years were unnecessary and continue to make it very difficult for people with disabilities.

We on this side of the House had to consider whether we would support this motion, and I found it unusual that the Government that had introduced such cuts was now tabling this motion. The analogy I use is that it is like Phillip Morris championing a campaign to give up cigarettes. Taken in isolation, we all have had to endure the cuts in the health service, such as the increase in the prescription charges, and the reduction in services. This has bitten into society in a very severe way for all able and disabled people but the impact has been greater on the 19% of the population with disabilities. Neither this Government, nor previous governments have covered themselves in glory when it has come to the prioritisation of funding and the tendency is to reach for the low hanging fruit, which all too often falls within the responsibility of the Minister of State, such as mental health funding, the provisions for the disabled and so on.

We are in agreement on the need for a statutory based personal assistance service, more employment and the various other well made points in the wording of the motion but the reality is that talk is cheap and actions speak louder than words. Choices had to be made and the Labour Party lost out to the Fine Gael Party on the argument to add a percentage or two to the taxes on people who were better heeled and earning an income of over €150,000 per annum who could have given more. This would not be a panacea for all the cuts that were necessary but it could have prevented some of the cuts that had to be made in services to the most challenged sector of society. We failed to do that and I feel we must look back in shame at not having made the choices that would have been less popular with other sections of society, but in terms of our responsibility to people with disability would have been the correct thing to do. Perhaps the Minister of State would have liked to have done this but the reality of the choices made were not conducive to what was necessary to help people with disabilities.

It is unusual to see a Government come forward with a motion such as this when it holds the reins.

There is a draft HSE policy on disability, accessibility and the use of supports which includes support persons, personal assistants, assistive animals and assistive technology. The document reference number is 20.3.2013 which refers to the date of 20 March 2013 and is listed as "revision 6, pending approval." The document was not released to me because it is a confidential document but it does exist. Shockingly, anecdotal evidence suggests that in February of this year the newly-appointed head of disability services, Ms Marion Meaney, was unaware of the document. One wonders whether Mr. Pat Healy, the director in this area, is aware of the document. Then again why should I wonder when nothing was done with the document since March 2013? That is hardly the kind of commitment from a party which proposes to put the issue of personal assistance on a statutory basis. It is a sad indictment of the abject failure of the Government's approach to this area when a document, pending approval, has not been visited since March 2013.

I have no doubt that the Minister of State can investigate the issue. I have a photograph of the front of the policy document that I am glad to share with her after the debate because it is too small to show her now and cannot be seen from across the room. I can assure her that it does exist. It is shocking in the extreme that, on the one hand, that inaction is sought to be promoted yet, on the other hand, the same party tabled the motion.

Cuts have further exacerbated the difficulties experienced by people with disabilities. All Governments share the responsibility for the failures in this regard. Far be it from me to exclusively punish the existing Government but absolve previous Governments. I would never seek to do so and will not. I shall, however, highlight the fact that it is odd to table a motion in the name of the Government parties at this time while at the same time ignore a policy that has been in existence since March 2013, that groups like the Centres for Independent Living, the Disability Federation of Ireland and other stakeholders, having participated in its preparation or signed up to, would like to see implemented. The Government has continued to procrastinate. Today we have a motion that seeks to put the initiative on a statutory footing but it will not even put in practice the same policy that the Minister for State, and the officials operating under her control and auspices, have sat on for the past year.

To conclude, I thank the people who made the effort to come here today and I had an opportunity to meet one or two of them beforehand. We know the chief executive officer of the Disability Federation of Ireland, Mr. Dolan, from old and ongoing debates. We are grateful for their ongoing assistance.

I urge the Minister of State to dig out the policy document and make sure that Ms Marion Meaney is made aware of it, and the director is now aware of it. Instead of leaving it on a shelf I urge the Minister of State to dust it down, approve it and let us move it forward as quickly as possible. The people who took the time to pass through all of these areas and stairs, and got into the lift on the other side of the building, in order to come all of the way in here, deserve to hear a little bit more than rhetoric on the motion tabled today. Instead, they want action taken on the policy that they helped and advised the HSE in drawing up. I have a picture of the draft policy document that I am glad to show to anybody after the debate.