Eileen Flynn (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am glad to have the opportunity to speak on this very important matter this evening. Care is at the core of our communities and our connections. We need to start looking at care differently and speaking about it differently. We should not use cost to measure the impact of care because our society is built on care. Care often lays the foundation for persons to live independently. This motion states that those in need of care are not mere passive recipients of care but are themselves persons with standalone rights. Every person in the world has needs and will need care in childhood, sickness, struggles and old age. We do not question whether these are people with stand-alone rights and so why should we ever question it when it comes to people with disabilities? This motion focuses on the contribution of family carers but it does not acknowledge other people who provide care and it does very little in respect to the rights of people in the disabled community.

Family carers are not just caregivers, they are advocates. By supporting them we can also support disabled communities but we need to follow the social model of disabilities and lay out the right foundations. I strongly welcome the amendment tabled by Senator Clonan to abandon the Green Paper on disability reform, and to ratify and implement the UNCRPD optional protocol. Now more than ever the Minister needs to set a date as to when this ratification will happen.

The lack of support for children with additional needs and their carers have been spoken about many times at committees and in these houses. The title of the report of the Ombudsman for Children 2023 was Nowhere to Turn. Unfortunately, a lot of the time disabled people have nowhere to turn. Parents have told us how they have had to fight for supports for their children for years on end. We know all that and I do not want to repeat what other Senators have said this evening. I welcome the establishment of the working group to review the system of means testing. We should not be intimidating carers with the means testing system we have at the moment so I think we should get rid of that full stop.

One of my biggest concerns relates to young carers. The ESRI report shows that young people who are caregivers receive poorer leaving certificate grades and are less likely to go on to higher education. If we are to develop a programme to target supports for young carers, as I believe we should, we should consider something other than school-based programmes and look more to a State campaign that focuses on young people.

I welcome all the measures that support family carers and people with disabilities. Family carers are such strong advocates for people they care for. People with disabilities are such strong advocates for themselves and we see that through the committees. We in Seanad Éireann must be strong and be advocates with people with disabilities and not for people with disabilities. If we were to listen to people with disabilities on the ground, we would abandon the Green Paper.