Joe O'Reilly (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. It is a particular pleasure given that in all his years in public life, he has been a passionate advocate for persons with disabilities. Now he is a very proactive Minister of State who has hit the ground running and is getting results in this sector. We now believe we have a Minister in place who has a true passion for and a real belief in the importance of his work. I know this from private meetings with him and groups and from a tour of my constituency where we visited special centres. The Minister of State knows what he is doing and cares about it.

I welcome the national disability inclusion strategy. It is an excellent holistic document with very good and aims and ambitions and realistic ambitions that will acted on. I will focus on a few aspects of the strategy and a few areas I am concerned about. The ambition to increase employment in the public sector to 6% is hugely welcome. I have anecdotal evidence that in some instances, local authorities and various bodies have been including people who get sick within their organisations in their disability quotas. As people naturally get various illnesses, these bodies have been distorting the figures that way. Quotas should be used in addition to dealing with internal matters. Could the Minister of State address that matter? I have good evidence to support that and I will discuss it privately with the Minister of State if he wishes. I would like to see some action on that.

I am delighted that we have the employment support schemes and the grants for employers for adaptations. I am afraid that they are not universally known, are not marketed adequately and that there is insufficient buy-in by employers. I know a large number of employers who are not employing people with disabilities when their jobs would lend themselves to employing them. More needs to be done to advertise, push out and market those schemes and to get employers to buy in. Perhaps more personnel are needed on the ground to call in to employers. As a public representative dealing with issues like this on the ground, I think it is not functioning adequately. There is much more potential within the private sector than is being realised. It merits mentioning that the income of disabled persons is less than half the income per capitaof people without a disability. This is hardly acceptable.

Another aspect of the strategy came up at a meeting I attended last night which I would like the Minister of State to address in his reply and take on board. I recall that during his visit to my county of Cavan, he discussed this on a number of occasions. The issue concerns waiting lists for assessment for children with special educational needs and others. At a party meeting in Cavan last night, a woman said publically that it took her four years to access occupational therapy services for her child. This is a horror. The Minister of State is right to be appalled by that because it is appalling. If there is that kind of wait for occupational therapy, speech and language therapy and indeed assessment, the intervening period amounts to a lost number of years in terms of intervention. Any of us who have taught, and the Minister of State is a teacher by profession, know that the earlier the intervention the better. I am not happy with the number of persons with disabilities, at a quarter of the total number, going to third level. It is impressive in one way but it is way below the rest of the population. It needs addressing in every proactive way that we can.

I have discussed the following matter privately with the Minister of State. I had an excellent meeting with the Cavan-Monaghan deaf persons grouping for those experiencing deafness and their families. Arising from that, I had a couple of meetings with the Minister of State. I am delighted that in the 2018 budget there is a commitment of funding for sign language interpreters and for quality assurance in that sphere. I am delighted that we could get funding and make progress on that and I ask the Minister of State to elaborate on that in his reply.

I would like to see more done in the area of carers and home care packages. I believe there is much more potential here to keep people out of institutional care than is being realised. There is a cost issue and it was correctly alluded to by Senator Dolan and others. Home is also where people want to be, which is the critical issue, but it is also less expensive to keep people out of institutional care.

I support the view that we can do more in the adaption grant area, although my personal experience in my county of the housing adaption grants has been quite positive and they have done a lot of great work there. Any more potential that could be there should be realised to ensure people are able to live in their own homes.

Lastly, Senator Dolan has a view in relation to the convention. I am very conversant with this through my work in the Council of Europe. It is the practice in quite a number of European states to ratify conventions in advance. They ratify the convention and one thinks all is hunky-dory, but, in fact, nothing is done. We have a tradition in Ireland, not only in relation to this convention but to a lot of conventions, of realising the targets and subsequently ratifying when we have shown earnest and good intent and proper action. My contention is that the Irish position is correct. It is better. There are a number of states in Europe which ratify conventions and then one hears anecdotal evidence from their parliamentarians and reports that nothing has happened on the ground. That is far more reprehensible. I would slightly take issue with my good friend, Senator Dolan's, view, while I note his sincerity. Let us get the blocks in place, let us do the work and then the ratifications and celebrations can take place. In my humble opinion, it is actuality we want and real results for people.