Trevor Ó Clochartaigh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister. He has been in the House quite a lot recently. As an aside, the issue of bins has not gone away. I have engaged in correspondence with the Minister because there are outstanding issues that need to be resolved. We will deal with them on another day.

Ar an gcéad dul síos, cuirim fáilte roimh an rún seo thar cheann Shinn Féin. Tá sé fíor-thábhachtach. Tá daoine le míchumas ar an ngrúpa a bhí thíos leis go mór mar gheall ar na ciorraithe éagsúla a cuireadh i bhfeidhm le linn na déine. Tá fórálacha maithe insan rún seo a dhíríonn ar dhaoine a bhfuil míchumas orthu a chur ina gcónaí i measc an phobail agus ar na hathruithe gur gá a dhéanamh i dtithíocht a dhéanamh chomh luath agus gur féidir.

We in Sinn Féin welcome this comprehensive motion and are happy to see that there seems to be a consensus across the House, especially given that people with disabilities were disproportionately affected by savage cutbacks during the austerity period. It was clear from the various U-turns by the last Government that it did not fundamentally understand the real-life impact of cutbacks or the withdrawal of services for those with disabilities.The motion seeks to accelerate the move from congregated settings to living in the community. Previously, we in Sinn Féin have supported such moves but we would also like to seek assurances that full integration takes place as well. Therefore, I welcome the measures in the motion that call for the disability-proofing of the social housing 2020 strategy. I especially welcome the provision for a percentage of Part V housing to be set aside for those with disabilities. I concur with Senator Boyhan on the comments he has made about the funding. Full clarity as to where the Part V funding is, where it has been and how much of it there is would certainly be very welcome. Perhaps the Minister could return to the House or circulate those figures when they are made available to him.

Under Fianna Fáil and under the Fine Gael coalition from 2010 to 2014, the housing adaptation grant was cut by a staggering 56%. This cut has had a detrimental effect on the amount of units available that are suitably adapted. It also meant that many people with disabilities who wished to remain at home were forced to live in accommodation that was wholly unsuitable. I visited a man in my own home area recently. He is in a wheelchair and has lost a leg. He has no social housing that is adapted and available to him. He is renting a chalet from a local person. When I went in to see his situation, it was absolutely unbelievable. He is in a wheelchair and the corridor that he has to traverse every day and night is literally just wide enough to get in and out of with the wheelchair. All the shelves, cupboards, etc., are too high. He is in a really difficult situation and is at his wit's end. He was getting very depressed because of the whole situation and the fact that he has been on the housing list for quite a number of years and is getting nowhere with the local authority. This is very much a personal issue for so many people and that is only one example.

This is part of the hidden side of the cuts that many previous Governments were blind to or did not want to know about. These people are languishing on the list. Everybody on the housing list is certainly unhappy that they are so long on it, but people with a disability are being given and added burden to carry. The housing adaptation grant for people with disabilities should be made available to tenants of local authorities and should be paid to voluntary housing agencies and indeed private landlords to encourage people to make the necessary adaptions to the housing stock, such as the ones that I have outlined.

There was a recent report in The Connacht Tribuneabout residents of council houses in Galway having to wait up to 18 months for vital extensions, only to be turned down. According to the report, the council did not carry out a single extension last year. It is disgraceful to make people wait that long even just to find out what is going to happen to what are already unsuitable units. It is also short-sighted as the population with disabilities and those over 65 is increasing rapidly. There are sensible provisions in the motion that take account of the existing housing crisis. If there are to be any major moves towards significant new house builds, these plans must contain provisions for those with disabilities.

Ba mhaith liom mo bhuíochas a ghabháil leis an ngrúpa um rannpháirtíocht shibhialta as an rún seo a chur le chéile agus táim ag súil go mbeimid in ann oibriú le chéile ar na gnóthaí seo san am atá le teacht. I welcome that the Minister is coming forward with his own plan next week. I know that the committee on housing and homelessness, which my colleague Deputy Ó Broin was a member of, worked very hard on many of the recommendations that it has made on the whole area. I appreciate that the Minister recognises that there is an absolute emergency at this stage in the housing sector. We certainly do not want people with disabilities to be the poor relations again on the issue of housing. They need to be central to all of the policy. All of the policy that is coming forward should be disability-proofed. Le sin, ba mhaith liom a rá go bhfuilimid ag tacú leis an rún agus tá súil againn go mbeidh beart de réir briathar déanta nuair a thagann sé go dtí an t-airgead a chaitheamh.