Marie Moloney (Labour) | Oireachtas source

Like others, I welcome the Minister of State to the House and thank her for attending so often to address the issues that we raise.

Good work is being done and I commend the Minister of State on what she has done. She has a passion for this issue and is working hard. I welcome the Government's commitment to providing services for people with disabilities. In particular, I welcome the €1.5 billion and the movement of people out of congregated settings. However, we are not here to pat ourselves on the back. We are here to highlight deficiencies in the system and how things could be done better.

My next point is not the Minister of State's remit, but it relates to people with disabilities.I raise it because it is in my area of expertise which is social welfare and the difficulties people have accessing funding. The amount of work people have to do to access payments from social welfare for people with disabilities, in particular the domiciliary care allowance, is incredible. I have often sent in appeals before it is awarded. Only yesterday a doctor told a person in my area that the disability allowance has become political. He said the letters the medic writes no longer suffice in the Department of Social Protection. It wants more and more information. People are worn out trying to access these allowances. They are not applying for the fun of it but because they have, or someone else in the house has, a disability. Likewise regarding the carer’s allowance, it is getting harder to satisfy the medics in the Department of Social Protection.

People should be aware that employers can avail of the wage subsidy scheme if they employ people with disabilities. Many are not aware of that and maybe should be made aware of it. It may be our fault that we do not make people aware of it. The employability services are on offer to people with disabilities to help them find jobs. All these services should be highlighted.

I am very disappointed that the Department of Health did not provide any funding for the Scheme to Support National Organisations, SSNO. It is a disgrace. One can argue all one likes that it is in a community setting but it should have something to do with the Department of Health. The Minister of State said it has nothing to do with the Department but that is not true. This funding is for organisations providing services and support to people with disabilities to live in their own communities, have social inclusion and live the same as everybody else. I believe the Department of Health has an obligation to it. I am delighted that the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Kelly, provided funding for people with disabilities in health organisations. I do not understand it but the Minister of State can give her answer on that point.

Many people have only 20 minutes’ home help. That is absolutely worthless. People like to talk. Home help has turned into personal care, which is fine. When we were under financial pressure I could understand the move to that, but there are many people with a disability who really need the bed made or the floor swept or a bit of hoovering done. We have moved away from that and we need to get back to it.

Reconfiguration is a lovely word and sounds great but I would like to know how well it works. People are being assessed based on their school address. I cannot understand why. There is an appeals system which I have gone through with people and some appeals have been successful. Before I came in here today I wanted to know why a child with Down’s syndrome had to wait nine months to be called up after being taken in by Kerry Intervention and Disability Services, KIDS. I had to make five calls and each one I rang referred me on and on.