Ivana Bacik (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Kathleen Lynch, for coming to the House and giving us such a comprehensive outline of what she is doing and what has been going on. I thank my colleagues, almost all of whom supported the motion. I believe everyone supported the principle and spirit of it. I also welcome the representatives of the Disability Federation of Ireland. I also mention Mr. Michael McCabe, the chair of the Centre for Independent Living, who has been hugely instrumental in putting this together along with his colleagues Gary Lee and Nina Byrne, who are present in the Gallery.

The Minister of State, Deputy Kathleen Lynch, mentioned the resignation of the former Minister, Deputy Shatter, which occurred as we were speaking. He has been a very enlightened reforming Minister for Justice and Equality in many areas, disability rights being one of those.

I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Kathleen Lynch, for giving us such a comprehensive speech and in particular for challenging the rooting of disability issues in Department of Health, which we all recognise as problematic. She spoke very candidly about unemployment and disability. I am very glad that the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation is developing the employment strategy for persons with disabilities.

I am very glad that she expressed the Government's support for the provision of personal assistance services, which goes to the heart of the motion. We all take the point, as Senator Barrett has said, that it would be done in the context of the current economic climate and also in the context of a broader movement to individualised funding. I thank her for outlining the progress, which is very helpful for all of us and our visitors to hear. In particular she told us that the analysis of the demonstration projects looking at the practical impact of this move to individualised funding will commence this year. I also note her comment that legislation may be required to underpin the move to individualised budgeting and to this new framework. We all look forward to working with her and her officials on that. She also said that as the economy improves we can certainly build on the substantial work already done in this area.

All of us referred to the themes of empowerment and independent living, and also to autonomy and leadership. We all share the view that we must ensure that policies on disability and disability rights take those issues into account and prioritise them. We all see Government support for the provision of personal assistance services as a first step to a more formal recognition of the vindication of the rights of persons with disabilities under Article 19 of the convention. That is the starting point of the motion and that is where it would be appropriate to finish.