John Dolan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister to the House for this vital consideration of housing. I want to focus on housing for people with disabilities. A motion was unanimously passed in this House in July 2016 which focused on housing for people with disabilities. The House agreed to the motion which stated:

- confirm that the Government's action plan for housing includes specific commitments on the delivery of housing in sufficient numbers and type to also meet the housing needs of persons with disabilities;

- ensure the provision of an annual update from local authorities of the number of social housing units allocated to people with disabilities on the housing waiting list;

- ensure that any housing project supported by public funding, including Part V housing, provide a percentage of pre-planned and reserved housing units to meet local needs for persons with disabilities;

- ensure that the social housing 2020 strategy is routinely disability proofed;

- provide funding in 2017 to increase housing supply and to make necessary and timely adaptations to current housing stock;

and

- requests that the Joint Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government draft a work programme which will routinely consider and review Government progress towards delivering adequate and sustainable housing for persons with disabilities.

Almost two years later, that has not been honoured. That was a decision of this House in July 2016. We now have the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities which has been ratified by not only the Government but by the Dáil. It has been ratified and agreed by Ireland. We have given our international word, our bond, that we would implement that. I will mention one article that relates to people with disabilities and housing, namely, Article 19.Article 19 of the convention, entitled "Living independently and being included in the community", relates to people with disabilities and housing. Section (a) states that we must ensure that "Persons with disabilities have the opportunity to choose their place of residence and where and with whom they live on an equal basis with others and are not obliged to live in a particular living arrangement". We know there is a programme to ensure that people with intellectual disabilities can be moved out of congregated settings. We also know that 1,200 people under 65 have been routinely moved into nursing homes where, as I have often said, the doors only turn one way. There was a housing crisis for people with disabilities before there was a more widespread housing crisis but that is not seeping into the ongoing thinking and work in this area. The Minister, his officials and others who are dealing with a very nasty situation on housing in Ireland do not wake up in the morning and consider the legacy housing problem that existed before this crisis and which will get worse. I must be clear that I do not have easy solutions but the problem will not be solved by putting on carpet slippers and tiptoeing around it or by pretending it is not there. We are trying to keep people living in the community. They need to live somewhere.

I wish to mention Rebuilding Ireland 2016, which was published on 19 July, a week after the motion to which I referred. It did not reference the figures on social housing waiting lists which the Department already had. According to a survey conducted in 2013, there were approximately 3,900 persons with disabilities on the social housing waiting list at that time. That figure was not included in that strategy and has since increased to approximately 4,560. There is a blindspot in that regard or people consider that they do not need to include those figures as they have enough to be getting on with, which is unacceptable.

As regards the housing adaptation grant, the maximum grant available is €30,000 but that decreases for households with incomes exceeding €30,000 per annum. Households with annual incomes of €35,000, €40,000 or more may end up getting buttons and having to fund so much of the work themselves that it is not feasible to carry it out. The houses of many families in this country with babies or children with significant physical and other needs, or family members who have become disabled, are unsuitable for the person with a disability. This is to a large extent the first generation of families to try to rear such children in their own homes. The parents may be trying to hold down a job and earn the average wage, which is in excess of €30,000 per annum. However the maximum grant available under the scheme is €30,000 and that can only be claimed by households whose annual income is under 30,000. What is the cost of such works? If we seriously wish to help people who have a child with a disability and other children to rear or who care for a family member who becomes disabled midway through life, they must have real help with the cost of bricks and mortar. It is a once-off payment. There is no recurring expense. Surely, we can find a way to upscale that scheme. Although the State contributes funding to the scheme, local authorities must find matching funds for it. We should be able to do something serious and substantial in the short term in this area which would help to alleviate the burden of a particular group of people. We must help these families who are trying to get up early in the morning - I do not mean to poke fun at anyone by saying that - get children out to school, get things moving, get to work themselves and so on but who must cope with the extra and incidental costs of having a child or other person in the house with a disability and all the things we never think about until we find ourselves facing them. The State must act to change this very harsh and Victorian style of means testing. It does not work, it does not help people and it will hinder Ireland meeting its obligations in respect of people with disabilities.

I ask that the Minister come to the House relatively soon to comprehensively outline where we are in terms of ensuring housing for people with disabilities. Let us be honest. If we have problems - and we do - let us put them out there and then see how we will solve them.