John Dolan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State as we start a new year. I welcome and commend this initiative led by Senator Reilly and his colleagues. Senator Reilly and Senator Colm Burke, in their own way, referred to three core issues, namely, home, place and relationships. If we cannot see these three elements coming out of plans, we might as well tear up the plans. The motion presents the idea of making trading up and down easier. Senator Reilly spoke of older people and the reduced ability or disability that come with old age. We cannot seriously talk about housing and community supports for older people without factoring in people's changing abilities, for example, people may become disabled or uncomfortable with being able to operate in certain ways. As people age, many will become disabled in one way or another. That has to be the bottom line and benchmark in design and planning.

Senator Reilly stated the right thing should be the easy thing to do. We have a real problem with making the right thing the easy thing to do. I will come back to that issue later.

We are still in the eye of a major housing crisis. The Minister must avoid solving today's problem, critical and chronic as it is, by creating more problems in the future. It is easy to say that but that has to be one of the guiding principles for dealing with today's chronic housing issue.

The motion notes the "excellent progress to date under the Rebuilding Ireland plan". In general terms, that is true, even though we are all frustrated that we have not yet seen light at the end of the tunnel. I have one comment, however, on the Rebuilding Ireland plan. On page 55, which refers to people with disabilities, there are four paragraphs. I was highly critical of that at the time and I want to rehearse that criticism now for a particular reason. We knew at that time that there were 3,319 people with disabilities on the social housing list. This figure was identified in the 2013 survey done by the Department. We did not have the 2016 figures but they came out the following year. I do not have the exact figure for 2016 but it was around 4,600. As such, the figures were trending upwards. Rebuilding Ireland includes a great deal about processes, subgroups, meetings and stakeholders. A plan whose authors did not even have the good grace to state what we already knew, namely, that there were 3,919 people with disabilities on the social housing waiting list, was not facing reality or giving a sense that it would deal seriously with the issue of people with a disability.The motion goes on to call on Government and the relevant Departments of Housing, Planning and Local Government, Health and others to bring forward a comprehensive plan and policy guidelines. That is excellent because the matter is interdepartmental.

We are excellent with strategies and plans and all the rest. However, I seldom see a comprehensive implementation plan that deals with the critical areas that go across different Departments. One exception was when we had our great unemployment crisis. Every Department was being whipped every day of the week about jobs, jobs and jobs. No matter what Department, it was under the whip to ensure that we got jobs back and that we got people back to work. If we are to deal with the housing situation, the same sense has to be there across a range of Departments.

I find it helpful to cover the full spectrum of need from independent living to low-dependency and high-dependency clients. That has to be welcomed indeed.

The national positive ageing strategy is well-regarded and we have had it for several years. It deals with a range of things. I am raising it now because the issue of implementation bedevils us all the time. I would love to see us passing fewer motions and giving less consideration to initiating legislation – this is almost heretical – but spending more time getting down and dirty about how plans are being implemented and how legislation is working. It would be valuable for this House to spend a greater balance of our time on that.

In 2002, the Madrid international plan of action on ageing was published. I am keen to name two objectives from it. One objective refers to promotion of ageing in place in the community with due regard to individual preferences and affordable housing options for older persons. The second objective refers to improvement in housing and environmental design to promote independent living by taking into account the needs of older persons, in particular those with disabilities. We have plenty of indications from Ireland and internationally on what we need to be doing. Article 19 of the UN Convention relates to living independently and being included in the community, and that is relevant. I will not say any more about it, but it is germane to and important for this motion. I tabled a successful motion in July 2016 relating to housing. Again, the issue of follow-up with these things arises. The motion was passed unanimously. Comprehensive plans and policy guidelines will not deliver without a whole-of-government approach that needs to be driven from the centre of Government. Someone said that culture eats strategy for breakfast. Our culture holds that if we write it down and have a plan, then it will implement itself, but it does not.

The issue of people being able to live in a community and trade up and down is important. If we could crack this nut and have a better mix of housing and housing types in one community to enable people to trade up and down without penalty, it would be preferable. I live in a house that I moved into 19 years ago. It is a bungalow. The people who left it were in their mid-60s. They were able to move within 300 or 400 yards into a ground floor apartment. They are still hale and hearty. They go to the same church and have the same relationships and connections. That, as much as anything else, is keeping them right, hale and hearty.