Robbie Gallagher (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

At the outset I thank the Minister of State most sincerely for her recent visit to Monaghan, which was very well received. The feedback has been extremely positive. I wish to take this opportunity to thank her for her ongoing work within her portfolio.

This morning, I am urging the Minister of State to get the HSE to reconsider the transport charge that is being levelled at several juniors who are attending HSE day services in the community healthcare organisation, CHO, 1 area, which includes the counties of Monaghan, Cavan, Donegal, Sligo and Leitrim.

As the Minister of State will know, disability is unfortunately strongly associated with poverty in this country. Among people who are unable to work due to long-standing illness, one in three live on an income below the poverty line. Among those who are able to work, many people with a disability are unemployed. This is a classification where more than four in ten people live in poverty. People with a disability are twice as likely to be unable to afford to heat their home. Much help is needed in that regard with rising inflation costs.

In fact, a study that has recently been compiled by Indecon on behalf of the Department of Social Protection has found that the cost of having a disability is between €9,482 and €11,734 extra per year, on top of everyday expenses. As the Minister of State will be aware, disabled people and the households that include people with a disability have to spend more on items such as fuel and light, transport, therapeutic equipment, medical expenses, domestic services, equipment aids and appliances, mobility and communications, daily living costs and care and assistance.

It therefore seems inexplicable that a transport charge has been applied to service users who are attending HSE day services at €4 per trip or €20 per week, particularly when this levy is being applied exclusively to the CHO 1 area, which includes the counties that I mentioned earlier. These five counties are arguably the most isolated counties with regard to transport infrastructure in the entire country.

The daily charge of €4 amounts to a total of €960 per annum for a person with a disability. Naturally, there is now a genuine fear in families that their loved ones may not be able to avail of the service simply because of the cost. That would be heartbreaking. I am aware of one case locally where there are two attendees in a family. That will cost them almost €2,000 per annum, which is a huge amount of money. On top of that is the aforementioned cost of living with disability. I feel that this charge is very unfair. Apparently, the charge has been levied because the routes are deemed to be closed routes or exclusive routes. People who are using an open route can use their free travel pass, for example, on Bus Éireann. Unfortunately, this does not apply to this particular service. The problem with the CHO 1 area is that the routes are deemed to be closed.

The simple answer would appear to be to extend the free travel pass to include these particular routes. Maybe that is too simple and I await the Minister of State’s response on that. There is no issue with the service. The service is top class but unfortunately, it is now getting to the stage where many families simply cannot afford it. I acknowledge that since the Minister of State has come into office, she has been a champion for people with disabilities. I now ask her to champion this cause on behalf of the service users of Monaghan, Cavan, Sligo, Leitrim and Donegal.