John Dolan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State.

I thank the Leader for ensuring that this new strategy was on the clár on the first week the Seanad was back after recess. Regardless of our views on the strategy, that is a very important thing and I welcome it. I also welcome the initiatives, moves and improvements that have been made over the last year or so by the Minister of State.

He and the Government have mistakenly put their faith in this strategy. It is the road to further doom, gloom and loss of any hope for people with disabilities, more than 640,000 of them. There are serious and fatal fault lines in the design and make up of the strategy. These can be addressed but I will first set them out.

First, page 1 of the strategy states that the enactment of new or amended legislation is required prior to the ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, UNCRPD. I am not confident that the Minister of State understands what ratification is about. It is simply about a Government having a programme of progressive realisation, progressive improvement for the UNCRPD. If we are fully compliant, we do not need the UN convention. If we have nothing to do towards it, we are there. We need to just get on with it and start doing the work.

Second, pages 2 and 3 of the strategy set out 13 initiatives that the Minister of State says will, in their cumulative effect, be life changing for very many people. Of these, six, almost half, are processes such as examining the recommendations of the make work pay working group with a view to their introduction, reviewing transport supports. We find the development of proposals are there twice and the development of a code of practice for support. These are planning and preparation tasks, they are not delivering for people. Showing people the menu when one has no food to give them is frankly misleading.

Third, post-ratification is mentioned twice on page 11 without any commitment to a date for ratification of the UN convention even in the 2021 deadline. Is this a misprint or an attempt to mislead? Did the Minister of State hear the following statement: "As a Government, we are renewing our commitment to ratifying the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities this year and to improving services available to people with disabilities”? That was said by our newly elected Taoiseach in the Dáil just after he said that the Minister of State, Deputy Finian McGrath remains Minister with responsibility for disabilities across several Departments. Does the Minister of State not trust what the Taoiseach said in the Dáil? That was on 14 June. This strategy was published on 14 July and there is not a hint of that commitment in the strategy, high up or low down.

Fourth, there is an issue of trust and confidence between the Minister of State and some of those staff who advise him.In an interview with Áine Lawlor, the Minister of State said on RTE Radio One earlier this year that he was misled regarding the date for ratification. He said that when he came into Government, he was clearly misled regarding doing it in a shorter timeframe. Áine Lawlor then asked him who he had been misled by. He replied that people within the system told him that it would be done by Christmas. That was the Minister of State's reply. As of now, the Minister of State has refused to put the Taoiseach's commitment into this and furthermore, he has officials advising him whom he has stated publically he does not trust. I am now asking the Minister of State about what he has done regarding these officials who are known to him. Has he raised this matter with the Secretary General, the former Minister, Deputy Fitzgerald, or the current Minister, Deputy Flanagan? Why does this strategy not contain the commitment given to the Dáil by An Taoiseach front and centre?

I will move to good news. This strategy is in need of what I call fairly major rehabilitation but it can be done successfully and quickly. The section on disability in Ireland on page 5 sets out a range of damning statistics outlining key challenges and fair play for actually putting them up-front - poverty, unemployment and low participation in education. Yet those 1,200 young people living in nursing homes or the increase in the already high levels of social housing need do not figure. These are recent Government figures. The strategy demonstrates little or no ambition to address these critical matters. Ambitious outcomes for people's lives are not in this plan. What can be done and what is the solution? A couple of things can be done straight up. Let us take this document back, amend it, insert the Taoiseach's commitment to ratify, set out the extent to which services will be improved and place the Department of the Taoiseach at the centre of ensuring that this whole-of-Government strategy is ratified and implemented fully. Yes, there is a continuing and important role for the Department of Justice and Equality in terms of continuing necessary support.

Budget 2018 is critical to the other side - real and practical outcomes for people and key outcomes to be delivered. It is the third year of this Administration. The liberty of the forgotten 1,200 who have already been mentioned by Senator Devine is denied. They are deprived of it. We do not need to go to any barristers to sort that one out. We should take the funding that is going into keeping them in nursing homes and put it back in the community. They are already being funded to basically stay in captivity so we should ensure that not one more young person goes into a nursing home.

That is the first aspect. In parallel, we should commit to returning the 1,200 young people over the next three or four years on a phased basis in keeping with the convention. In respect of housing, we should commit on a phased yearly basis to provide social housing. I can name 800 people on the waiting list. Does the Minister of State know that the figure of €178 million that is being given back to people who paid their water charges would actually fund that? We should make the housing adaptation grant more available and accessible. There is a lot of talk about the restoration of pay. Let us have the restoration of income to people on means-tested payments - disability allowance, which has already been mentioned, to give them back the €1,047 they lost over the past five years. Surely to God, that has to be the first call on a Government that has a heart. These people were on means-tested incomes. In respect of employment, there is a strong commitment to move from 3% in the public sector to 6%. I note that the conclusion date for that is out to 2024, which is a long time away.

The priority in the budget can be and needs to be disability inclusion. Responsibility for addressing these issues impacting on people with disabilities rests first and foremost with An Taoiseach, Ministers and the budget. The budget needs to be a game-changer. I know so well that the Minister of State wants this strategy to work. Everybody else want it to work. I am sad to say that as it is, it will simply flounder.

I have one question for the Minister of State. Could he tell us when he first saw the Attorney General's advice or when the Attorney General's advice was sought as to how the process of ratification could be accelerated?