Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State and the motion. The motion is a clear sign of what we need following on from the debates we had last week, when we looked at the upcoming referendums and at the question of how we, as a State, address the issue of care. It is a very good sign that Government Members are putting forward this motion and setting out a level of ambition. Two important principles are acknowledged at the beginning of the motion and I will respond to them. First, the care provided by family carers is important, but the care provided by family carers is unsustainable without the provision of supports and services in the community and via home care supports. That is a very important acknowledgement. I have been clear that it would have been better if "community" were referenced in the text of the amendment we are going to be voting on in the upcoming referendum. Nonetheless, it is important that we make it clear in that language that is talked about with the "strive to support" that this striving has to include community supports as well as supports in the home. It is a really crucial point.

The importance of HCAs was mentioned. I totally agree. In fact, my Commencement matter this morning was on the issue of how we need to do an awful lot better in the education pipeline in supporting more diverse healthcare workers coming through our system. We also have to support personal needs assistants, which is a slightly different piece, but is very important in ensuring people with a disability have their independence and are able to participate and contribute in society in the way that they wish. That is another very important piece of the puzzle.

There are a number of important recommendations here. I agree with them. I suggest a few probably need to go a little further. Regarding statutory home care, it is not simply enough that we report on the progress of the implementation group; we need to see implementation. We need to have a roadmap for implementation. We need to know what the timeline is for the implementation of statutory home care and the entitlement to such care. We needed to have delivered that yesterday so that we can move on to looking at things like personal needs assistants, which is the next step. Again, I would like a really clear commitment regarding the timeline on statutory home come. I think the motion says it has been worked on for a few years. I worked on it over a decade ago before I ever came into these Houses. We have been calling for that with Older and Bolder. This is important too for the national carers' strategy.

I want to highlight the reference to the carers' credit within the pension system. While I really welcome that credits are given for care for up to 20 years, there is a real problem that the number of total contributions required has been pushed out to 40. Effectively, the goalposts have moved. Instead of a situation where you needed 20 or 30 credits, now you need 40. Even if you are getting 20 of them as care, you are still in the same trap we saw for many years whereby women in particular tended to fall into a reduced-rate pension. That said, there are ideas and motions here. I know the Minister of State will come back with strong language but we need to see serious resource commitments from all of government. A signal needs to come in the next few weeks so that people can be confident that we are going to see a step forward in terms of the vision for care in Ireland. What we have in the Constitution right now is grossly inadequate. It only includes women. It only includes married women. It does not recognise the care given by mothers or others if they are not married. The 25% of women who are in one-parent families, for example, are not recognised in it. Men who deliver care are not recognised in it and neither is the wider set of family relationships in care. Yes, it is improved but still there is the language. "Endeavour to ensure" is what we have now. "Strive to support" is what we are getting. Both of these feel a little woolly and we need to really strengthen them. We need to have very robust, strong signals of what they are going to mean and that is why giving those signals on things like the statutory entitlement to home care is important. I will conclude by indicating my support for Senator Clonan’s amendments. The Green Paper on Disability Reform 2023 was an appalling misstep and should be shelved. More importantly, the ratification of the optional protocol of the UNCRPD is particularly crucial. If we pass this amendment, we hope that those who are involved in the provision of care will have something in the Constitution they are able to call on, use and make justiciable if they have to in order to tell the State that it is not striving enough. We want to make sure that persons with a disability who have direct right in their own right also have a tool they can use. The UNCRPD is a crucial tool in that regard. Right now, individuals do not have access to it until we get the optional protocol. We need a date for the ratification of the optional protocol. I urge the Minister to State to support this amendment as Minister of State.