Mark Wall (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senator Clonan and others for bringing forward this important motion. As Senator Black has done, I pay particular tribute to Senator Clonan. I know this matter is close to his heart, given his direct experience of challenges faced by people with disabilities and their families and of trying to navigate the dysfunctional support systems we have. He is a tremendous advocate for people with disabilities.

I welcome the Minister to the House. I always welcome the opportunity to talk about disability services and supports, as the challenges faced by those living with a disability and their families or caregivers can never be overstated. There has been a plethora of issues with disability services for many years that could and should have been treated with much greater urgency. For example, I am thinking of the extraordinarily long waiting list of more than 17,000 people for initial contact from a children's disability network team, CDNT, or the significant staff shortages. The Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth has acknowledged that the 34% average vacancy rate across the teams is feeding into delays. Two days ago, on Monday, we saw reports that CDNT staff face severe safety concerns.

In many ways, the motion tabled by Senator Clonan and colleagues, is simple. It is simply asking that people with disabilities be afforded the opportunity to have the fulfilled lives that many are denied due to financial burdens and financial constraints that come with having a disability. My Labour Party colleagues and I are completely behind the call contained in this motion. Improving supports available to people with disabilities and standing up for the right to live decent and dignified lives is an issue we in the Labour Party have dedicated a lot of time and effort to in recent years. In May, my colleague, Deputy Duncan Smith, brought a motion to the Dáil on access to autism and disability supports. Among other things, the motion called for the provision of financial relief for parents and caregivers who are forced to pay for private assessments and therapies; an increase in accountability of the HSE for child disability services; a workforce management strategy to address staffing shortages in disability services such as the CDNTs I already mentioned; and the introduction of a cost-of-disability payment. The motion brought about a welcome intervention from the Minister of State with responsibility for disabilities. In her response to the Labour Party motion, she made a commitment that if the HSE failed to set up six regional assessment hubs by August, she would bring our proposal for financial relief for parents paying for private assessments to budget 2024. One could be forgiven for thinking the Minister of State meant the regional hubs would be operational and not simply set up. However, they are not in any real sense operational at the moment and after yesterday's budget announcement, it appears the Minister of State has rolled back on her commitment to fund families who pay out-of-pocket for assessments the HSE should be providing. In reality, struggling parents of children with disabilities are no better off. Nothing has changed for them. Families the length and breadth of the country will have been listening yesterday in the hope of some reprieve, some support from the Government or an acknowledgement that they are struggling with the cost of assessments they are forced to bear because of a dysfunctional system and a litany of costs associated with living with a disability. Those families will have been bitterly disappointed with yesterday's budget. They can justifiably question the Government and the Minister of State. I personally commended the Minister of State when she was in the House not long ago, after that commitment was made. It is regrettable, to say the least, that the Minister of State's promise has not been kept to date. No support for assessments, no cost of disability payment and a fraction of what is required has been allocated for the disability action plan. Budget 2024 was not a budget for people with disabilities.

The motion raises the issue of the Green Paper on reform of disability payments. I acknowledge the model set out in the document and the model the Government will pursue is not yet set in stone and that public consultation is under way. I have spoken to several people in recent days and I agree with colleagues that we need to ensure as many people take part in the process as possible. I appreciate the Minister will announce some measures that relate to it. It is important that those with lived experience take part, as we have always said. There are some concerns about the Green Paper. For example, Independent Living Movement Ireland has pointed out that no detail on how need and ability to work will be assessed is contained in the proposal. We will all agree that is an important detail to be missing, even if it is only a straw man proposal at this time. While I accept there is an increase in the payments in tiers 1 and 2 of the disability allowance, invalidity pension and blind pension, the fact remains that the payments remain below the cost of disability, based on the Government's report of almost two years ago. In any case, there are some serious flaws in the model as it is proposed in the Green Paper. It is punitive and plainly the wrong approach to take. It flies in the face of the principle of affording people with disabilities a dignified life. We should not be entertaining the thought of categorising people with disabilities into those who deserve supports and those who do not.The outcomes with a similar model have been mentioned previously in respect of our neighbours and have been well documented in the text by Senator Clonan, so I will not go into those other than to say that we echo the concerns Senator Clonan raised in his motion. To conclude, I reiterate the Labour Party's support for the motion and its provisions. I urge the Government to take its calls on board and to follow through with hard-pressed people with disabilities, and their families and care givers, who have been let down time and time again. They were let down again, in our opinion, by yesterday's budget. They deserve all the enjoyments of life as much as anybody else. At present, we have 100,000 disabled citizens who are living below the poverty line, which is simply not good enough. Once again, I thank Senator Clonan for putting this motion before us.