Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Senators for tabling this motion which the Labour Party is obviously delighted to support. It is a very interesting debate. I am sure that the Minister will agree that the expertise in this Chamber is quite remarkable, from the campaigning sector to parents. Senator O'Sullivan's contribution was quite impressive. There are former local authority members and indeed a former Minister for housing in the Seanad as well. It adds great weight to the debate.

In general terms, I wish to say that, like all issues when dealing with people with disabilities, we unfortunately tend to compartmentalise the issues. I know this from my experience as a Minister of State in the last Government when dealing with the employment issue. The tendency was to view issues of people with disabilities as separate from the mainstream. I believe that is a mistake. Employment is important and housing is important, regardless of how crises come and go. There is a tendency in Irish public policy to aim to sort out the mainstream crisis or emergency first and then to deal with these supposed issues, which are characterised as side-issues, but are really central to the entire debate. It was a disappointment for me and to people in the sector when we saw that An Action Plan for Jobs did not include a more comprehensive set of proposals for every sector of society.

As Senator McFadden quite rightly said, this comes down to issues of empowerment and identity. What is more important to one's identity than the job one does or where one lives? It is central to our aim of getting away from the charitable view of people with disabilities towards a more rights-focused and rights-centred approach to the entire area. I know that the Minister is grappling with this issue as a new person in the job and that he intends to publish his action plan for housing next week. Even at this late stage, I implore the Minister to insert into that action plan a section dedicated to housing for people with disabilities because we have had a litany of failures.

This goes beyond governmental records going back over the years, which have been previously mentioned. People have mentioned what local authorities have done and do not do. I will give two points in terms of the local authorities' response. Senator Boyhan mentioned local authority members. I believe it is legitimate to say that it is not good enough for local authority members to complain about a lack of resources coming from central government when they are beating down the door in order to reduce the property tax in their own local area by 15%, which would be a perfectly adequate funding mechanism to supply housing for various different sectors of society that need it.Voting that down by 15% is their power, but they then complain about a lack of resources. If we are going to be serious about the services we want our local councillors to supply in their local authority areas, they must take the responsibility seriously and deliver for those who need it most.

There must be understanding in the wider society about the necessity for housing, because when it comes to housing for people on the edges of society, which could include Traveller accommodation or people with addiction, mental health or disability issues, there will regularly be a reaction from residents' groups and communities. I am quite sure everybody in this room involved with politics has been to meetings where statements are made that in the fullness of time might embarrass the speakers. Everybody wants solutions to the homelessness crisis or for homelessness to be resolved but they do not want it done necessarily on their doorstep. Everybody feels there should be appropriate accommodation for Travellers, but not near them, thank you very much. Everybody feels we should have proper accommodation for people with disabilities or mental health challenges, but not near them.

After the election I attended a public meeting in my own constituency relating to a 68-unit development. Some of the statements made in that room made me feel I was at a meeting somewhere in the Deep South, perhaps Alabama, in the 1950s, with pitchforks being wielded. One woman stood up to say she had never been ashamed to live in the community where she resides until she sat in that room that night. There were 250 people in a packed room because they were upset at the suggestion there would be 68 social housing units in their community. We can compare that with the public outcry over homelessness and the housing crisis or the rhetoric coming from local authority members who vote to reduce the local property tax by 15%. There is a collective responsibility across all sectors, including politics and those with responsible leadership positions in their own communities, to be part of the solution.

I wish the Minister every success. None of us in the Chamber, and certainly no one in my party, intends in any way to be obstructionist or score political points on an issue such as this. There are practical solutions to be found. Issues relating to the elderly have been suggested. I met a group recently talking about dead space in areas where senior citizens reside more densely, as there may be cases in which one person resides in a four-bedroom house. We discussed how the local authority could renovate a portion of such houses to facilitate rental income for the person, who could use it to adapt another part of the house, thus allowing the dead space, through a funding mechanism, to refurbish the other space. This would allow us to move away from the idea that a single person in later years in a four-bedroom house must find a smaller unit. People have neighbours and contacts and may not want to move. There are innovative ways of different groups coming together to try to find solutions to the problems we face.

The expertise in this room is quite remarkable. Many motions coming before this and the other House are sometimes provocative for the sake of it, but this is a comprehensive, well thought out and detailed motion that will benefit the Minister. The message must go out to local authorities to do the job they have to do, but also that local authority members must take responsibility for the budgets they pass seriously. There is a societal responsibility to take on the issue. The essential point is not to make the mistake of divorcing the issue of employment for people with disabilities from the central Action Plan for Jobs employment strategy. If a housing strategy emerges next Tuesday, it should not divorce housing need for people with disabilities from the central document. I know the document is being made in the middle of an emergency and I understand that on Tuesday people will be lining up to take potshots at it and criticise it even before it is published. None the less, even at this late stage and with the guts of a week to go, if it has not been done, perhaps the strategy could contain many, if not all, of the suggestions in this motion. I have no knowledge of whether they are in the document. I wish the Minister every success, and the Labour Party is here to assist in tackling the issues.