David Cullinane (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State back to the House. She has been here a great deal in recent months dealing with a range of issues relating to mental health services and people with intellectual and physical disabilities. She should be commended on taking them seriously. It is a credit to her. If we had more Ministers who spent as much time debating these issues in the Chamber, it would be good for the Seanad.

Yesterday, I raised a Commencement motion on a somewhat related issue, that being, children with physical and intellectual disabilities. We discussed children waiting for assessments and diagnoses. I forwarded an e-mail to the Minister of State yesterday, but a few more came through today. In fact, an e-mail came through just two minutes ago from the parent of a young child with autism but who has not been diagnosed yet. It is the opinion of their general practitioner, GP, that the child has autism, but he has been on a waiting list since last August. The family cannot access proper services until a diagnosis has been made. I will forward the details to the Minister of State. These problems are distressing for families, who want assessments and diagnoses to happen as quickly as possible. The Minister of State gave a positive indication about resources yesterday, but I wanted to remind her of this issue.

Our vision must be of a society in which all citizens, including those with disabling conditions, can take a full part in all aspects of independent life, including the workplace, relying as far as possible on mainstream services to help them to reach their full potential but with the support of other services where necessary. We must not forget that 565,000 people reported having various forms of disability in the last census. Disability is, therefore, a societal issue affecting people of all ages and their families directly and indirectly. Some of the key trends spanning the 1996-2013 reports have been identified in recent national intellectual disability database, NIDD, reports. Increasing numbers of people are living full-time in community group homes as opposed to residential homes. We must move the focus from congregated settings to the community and from smaller settings to full integration. In 2013, some 98.7% of those registered on the NIDD were in receipt of services, 29.2% were in full-time residential services and 67% lived at home. There has been positive changes in recent times. The Minister of State has been a driver in that regard. I support her, but she would accept that we have much work left to do and must continue on this path.

The number of people with intellectual disabilities who are in psychiatric hospitals is reducing. This is welcome, but that anyone with an intellectual disability is in such a facility is an indictment of the planning that was done by several Governments over many years. There has been an increased focused on residential supports, which allow people to live at home. As we know, however, home help hours have been cut and home adaptation grants are increasingly difficult to acquire. A Senator mentioned this matter. It is an issue that breaks my heart. A family might approach one of us because a house needs to be adapted. I am unsure as to whether other local authorities differ, but when people apply for the grant in Waterford city and county, they are classed as priority 1, 2 or 3. If they are not classed as priority 1, they have no chance of getting anything done.