Martin Conway (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Tá fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit go dtí an Teach. It is always a pleasure to have him in the House. His address referred to the interesting theme of this International Day of Persons with Disabilities, which is the participation of people with disabilities in leadership. I have always adopted a positive disposition. I believe in looking at the glass as half full. As a Senator with a disability, I like to think that having people with disabilities in politics pays testament to the theme of the International Day of Persons with Disabilities.

We have made significant progress in the past two decades as a result of many organisations lobbying, working hard, collaborating and developing and delivering policies. When I went to school in integrated education in County Clare, there were no SNAs or resource teachers. A visiting teacher who specialised in vision impairment came to the school for an afternoon once a year. The required supports did not exist then, but they do now. There are more than 10,000 SNAs, and rightly so, because it allows people to reach their potential at an early age. By and large, they do a good job. The system should be structured slightly differently in certain cases. As a young person gains in confidence and develops his or her abilities and skills base, he or she may not necessarily need as many hours of support from an SNA or resource teacher. In such a circumstance, the support provided should be reduced because doing so will allow the young person to develop his or her independence. Our goal is for people with disabilities to be independent. Interventions and the usage of SNAs and resource teachers need to be constantly monitored. Just because a young person receives ten or 15 hours of support for the first five or six years of his or her educational cycle does not mean it is needed for the final phase of the cycle. The structures within education need to be constantly calibrated and considered because the first leg in equipping people to be independent is through educating them and allowing them to develop their skills base, whether in the world of academia, apprenticeships or elsewhere.

I am regularly contacted by people with disabilities who wish to discuss their experiences and what they wish to achieve, and who seek suggestions and advice and so on. I try to give them and their parents support because those of us who have been successful in our careers have a duty to reach out to others, provide reassurance and make the pathway easier for them. I refer to how the political system has responded to the quest for equality to which every citizen rightly aspires. When I started in politics in 2004, the notion of a Minister of State with specific responsibility for disability issues sitting at the Cabinet table was often discussed, but it was an aspirational goal. There have been very good Ministers of State with specific responsibility for disability since I was elected to the Oireachtas in 2011.I remember the work Kathleen Lynch tried to do at a time when we were very challenged economically and the country was broke in many ways.

To be fair to the Minister of State, Deputy Finian McGrath, and his group of Independents, they made it a priority to have a Minister of State with responsibility for disabilities sitting at the Cabinet table. He met a Fine Gael Party that had evolved into believing in that position in no small way because of the constant highlighting at parliamentary party level and with party leadership of the necessity for this to happen.

In 2016 two willing participants joined and we got a Minister of State with specific responsibility for disability at the Cabinet table with an interdepartmental brief to stress-test every decision made at Cabinet from a disability perspective. Things get done by being at Cabinet, the epicentre of where decisions are made. We are very fortunate to have the Minister of State, Deputy Finian McGrath, who has personal experience of how disability affects people's lives. He has been there for more than three years and knows that opportunities can be denied if it is not properly structured.

A further step in the political cycle and a coming of age came when Deputy Varadkar became Taoiseach. I had had many discussions with him over 20 years, prior to his becoming Taoiseach. He and I both became local authority members on the same day and were involved in Young Fine Gael prior to that. We have had countless discussions on how to break down the barriers to equality, and what practical structures can be put in place to allow people to achieve their potential. In his first speech as leader of Fine Gael, on the eve of becoming Taoiseach, he spoke extensively about disability in the Mansion House. He spoke about the need to ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, not in an aspirational timeline but in a very tight timeline. Working with the Minister of State, Deputy Finian McGrath, that happened by the end of 2017.

There have been incremental positive steps, reflecting not just our international responsibilities, but also our moral and ethical responsibilities. That by no means suggests the job is done - far from it. Too many people with disabilities, who have benefited from a good education, remain unemployed. I know there are strategies seeking to address that. While progress is being made, it is painstakingly slow. The first cog in giving people independence is giving them a job, which gives them a way to contribute to society and earn a living from contributing to society. That breaks down more barriers than one could ever imagine. The next time the Minister of State comes to the Chamber to speak on disabilities, I would like him to specialise on the area of employment and how we might work together. He was here two weeks ago to respond on my Private Members' motion on the need for eye clinical liaison officers in our hospital groups. I am very confident that as a result of that motion we will see eye clinical liaison officers in our hospitals. That is another cog in equipping people for independence.

We need to remember that our population is ageing, meaning that an increasing number of people will have disabilities. This is good government, proper government and what should happen. I sincerely hope it will become a natural form of government to have a Minister of State with responsibility for disabilities at the Cabinet table.