Trevor Ó Clochartaigh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The significance of the personal assistance service for people with disability is clear. In that context, Sinn Féin supports the motion, albeit with reservations, as my colleague, Senator Cullinane, outlined. Since the foundation of the State in 1922, Ireland has failed to treat differently-abled people with respect and dignity and has not provided the structures and resources they require to live independent and empowering lives. Thus far, the State has also failed to ratify the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. It has failed abysmally on the issues of living conditions and access to health, education and employment for people with disabilities.

Much has been revealed in recent years about the inhumane treatment of disabled people who, through no fault of their own, found themselves in the care of the State or its proxies. It is now generally accepted that the warehousing of disabled people in institutions was inhumane by any standards and a denial of their right to live with autonomy, dignity and respect. The move away from this system and the conscious and deliberate policy shift towards de-institutionalisation is, in the context of that which preceded it, undoubtedly a step in the right direction. However, the national disability strategy whose primary aim was de-institutionalisation is ten years old. As legislators, we are entitled to ask what has changed in the past decade, whether services have improved, if an infrastructural and legislative framework has been put in place to vindicate the rights of differently abled people and whether the State has put in place the funding and resources necessary to ensure disabled people can live empowering and decent lives. Unfortunately, the answer to all these questions is "No".

Obviously, the Government parties will defend their record in government and today's charade is one element of their defence. It is a fact, however, as demonstrated by all the evidence, research and reports, that on all the key indicators, for example, access to employment, education, health and housing, life for disabled people is exceptionally tough. Put another way, access to life chances and the crucial social services that are essential for meaningful and genuine participation in society remains in many respects out of reach for disabled people. Thus, they are more prone to poverty, unemployment, ill-health and neglect. This has been exacerbated by the policies of austerity embraced by the Government.

With all due respect to my Labour Party colleagues, it is difficult to support this motion and the policies that underpin it. Lofty aspirations and politically correct discourse do little to improve the lives of disabled people. As those present in the Gallery know only too well, policies that are not adequately resourced are nothing more than an exercise in optics and political game-playing.

Policies that are not adequately resourced are nothing more than an exercise in optics and political game playing.

It is now 2014 and it is simply not good enough that an individual's personal assistance hours can be reduced following a service review, in other words when service demands result in one individual's service being cut to address the priority needs of another person with a disability. Sinn Féin is also very concerned by the shift to individual assessment. While this all sounds fine in theory, in practice it is being used to conceal that the Government is cutting important services to disabled people.

When it comes to policy and services for disabled people we need to acknowledge that they and their families know best. We must also follow international best practice. Thus far the State has failed to do both with the result that disabled people are discriminated against and excluded from full participation in society on their terms. Sinn Féin is of the view that the failure to fully vindicate the rights of disabled people rests firmly with the State and with this and successive governments. Disability should not, of itself, predetermine a life that is characterised by a lack of independence, excessive State supervision and dependency. We believe that exclusion, discrimination and poverty are all evidence of the institutional and structural failures of the State.

We need to listen to disabled people and take seriously the recommendations they make when it comes to policies that have a huge bearing on how they live their lives. In the final analysis, disability is not the problem. The key issue is the failure of the State to give legislative grounding to a properly resourced and user-centred disability policy, where the buck stops with the State.