Seanad debates

Thursday, 16 May 2019

Comprehensive Employment Strategy for People with Disabilities 2015-2024: Statements

 

10:30 am

Photo of Rónán MullenRónán Mullen (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. I commend the fact that this debate is happening and the work that is going on here. I have read about the priorities of the strategy; the building of skills; the providing of bridges and support into work; the importance of making sure that work is profitable for the persons involved and this is no mere lipservice exercise or question of generous inclusion but rather something that confers benefits on the employer and the employee with disabilities; the importance that the job is not just a token thing but one that can endure. I have read about the importance of there being a possibility of a person moving in and out according to his or her abilities, availability and capacity to give time; as well as the need for support for persons in this area and the need for engagement with employers. It struck me, listening to this both inside and outside the Chamber, that this work is not just about justice. It is about more than justice but it is about doing justice for persons with disabilities and for the community. It is much more than charity. This work of including persons with disabilities in every aspect of life is the intersection of the duty to give each person his or her due but also recognising the particular contribution that such persons have to make.

I pay tribute to and give thanks for the Oireachtas Work and Learn Programme, OWL. It is a pilot project going into its second year.In saying this I am conscious that we must avoid any sense of being patronising. The contribution and the visibility of persons with disabilities of various kinds to the work and the atmosphere in these Houses is really making a very positive difference. I am delighted that the OWL programme is continuing. I pay tribute to the staff involved with it.

I particularly laud the strategy's commitment to increasing the public service's targets for the employment of persons with disabilities from 3% to 6% on a phased basis. It is vital that the public sector takes a lead in matters like this. Where the public sector goes, the private sector will hopefully follow. We need not pretend that there are not sometimes great difficulties and challenges to be faced. One only has to look at the operation of employment equality legislation, the tests that have to be met to show that employer has discriminated on the disability ground and the opt-outs available to employers under the legislation. These mean that sometimes there will not be the level of inclusion we would like.

The Minister of State will not necessarily be aware of something I brought up in recent days. It does not relate to how we do things here in Ireland, though it could do so. It is something we could learn from. It might make us more vigilant and is a cause for concern. Sometimes the public sector, the establishment so to speak, can speak out of both sides of its mouth regarding persons with disability. It can talk the talk about inclusion, set up committees and quangos and give grants on the one hand while the very apparatus of the State militates against persons with disabilities on the other. I am thinking of the Suhinthan and Hyde families. The former was denied residency in New Zealand and the latter's case is under appeal in Australia. The Suhinthan family, who emigrated to New Zealand, were to be given residency permits for the mum, the dad and two of the three children. The third child, who has Down's syndrome, was denied a permit because of the potential burden to the state. That took place in liberal New Zealand, not Trump's America or Putin's Russia. This is what the great apparatus of state can sometimes do. I call that discrimination on the disability ground, though it does not come under the heading of employment equality or provision of services and access thereto. I am sure those countries have anti-discrimination legislation. The Hyde family emigrated to Australia. A child was born in 2015 and diagnosed with cystic fibrosis, a condition whose nature and needs are well known to us here. Again, a residency permit was denied to that family on the grounds of the condition of the child, who was born in Australia and has never known any other country. When they applied for permanent residency this is the treatment they got from the great apparatus of state.

I brought forward a Commencement matter the other day to ask if this could happen in Ireland. I understand that an approach has not been made to the Irish Government on the behalf of these families. The case of the Hyde family is now on appeal to the immigration minister. This is something we should do of our own volition without waiting to be asked. That type of problem raises serious questions about how supposedly liberal modern societies respond to the particular extra needs of families with persons with disabilities or illnesses of some kind. It should give us pause for thought at the very least and I hope reason for action of some appropriate kind. I mention that not so much as a bad news story as a cautionary tale. We need to keep our eyes on it and perhaps respond, as well as making sure it never ever happens in this country. I commend the Minister of State and the workforce on this very important contribution to our public life.

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