Tom Clonan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senators Ruane, Higgins and Black for proposing this motion for debate. I want to do a kind of meditation on poverty, if I may. I will start by focusing on material poverty and then I will focus on poverty of spirit in this Republic.

I will begin with an area of particular interest to me, that is, disability. That interest is borne out of my family's experience. We know the facts. These are the quantitative, measurable and deterministic facts. One in five persons with a disability in Ireland lives in consistent poverty. I say "God help you" if you are born with a disability in this country because this is one of the worst countries in Europe in which to have a disability. I do not care if I am repeating myself. People live lives of abject misery because they happen to be born into this Republic with a disability. For shame. We should be the best country in Europe in which to have a disability but we are not. Some 27% of our homeless population are people with disabilities. I ask the House to just think about that and about how over-represented people with a disability are among the homeless population. Recent research shows that having a disability incurs an average cost on the household of between €8,700 and €12,300. Disability allowance, however, comes to only €10,816, so it is a grand design, if the allowance is kept at that level, to guarantee that people will live in consistent poverty. As a community of carers and disabled people and citizens, we have consistently asked that the disability allowance be raised to the level of the pandemic unemployment payment, PUP, because that is what was recognised as a minimum or living wage. There has been no action on that. That is some of the material poverty in which we live.

I am approached constantly by people who ask me the question, "What will happen to my son or daughter when I die?" I have the same question. The former Minister of State, Finian McGrath, could not answer it in the previous Dáil, not for lack of sincerity or trying to find answers for me. Nobody in the current Cabinet can answer that question for me. As a retired Army officer who served the State here and overseas, and as a parent, I cannot say what will happen to my child when I die. My fear is that he will become homeless, go into crisis or end up in a nursing home in his 30s and 40s. My fear is that he will be inappropriately cared for. That is the experience of more than 1,800 young people with acquired brain injuries and other disabilities who find themselves in such inappropriate settings. That is our Republic.

On poverty more generally, the major factor is housing and homes. I grew up in Finglas. I do not consider that I came from a disadvantaged background but I went to school with boys and played on the street with girls and boys who came from disadvantaged backgrounds. I remember that in 1982 there was a "Today Tonight" special about Finglas. We watched it at home and saw the piebald horses being whipped up the streets and the burnt out cars. We saw ourselves reflected but it was not us. We were othered, however. I remember growing up in that environment. I would go into town on the bus with my mum and we would go down O'Connell Street. I remember we were in Clearys one day and a lady was doing a promotion for biscuits. She opened a tin of biscuits and offered me one. I looked into the tin and picked out the plainest biscuit. The lady - I remember the smell of her perfume and her makeup - put her hand on mine and asked, "Why are you taking the plainest biscuit?" It was because I did not feel I was worth it. She picked up the chocolate biscuit with the sprinkles on it and made me take it. I still remember the feeling of guilt. We internalise the poverty of our environment, and I come from an advantaged background. We had a roof over our heads. I remember, in 1972, playing on the street in Finglas with my sister, watching the prefabricated houses going down to build Finglas south and Finglas west, when we did not have a pot to-----