Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank everybody for their contributions and those who have stayed for the whole time. I thank Senator Seery Kearney and her colleagues for putting down this motion and affording us the opportunity for the conversation this evening. There have been valuable contributions made. The one that stuck out for me was that of Senator Victor Boyhan. He has taken me to task to talk through what were the asks within it which will address the motion as well, and it gives me a chance to speak to them.

The motion calls on Government to ensure the provision of disability service is a priority in the HSE service plan. Absolutely. The service plan will be published in the next few weeks and it is hoped that will be seen. I can assure the House of that. Since I transferred Department, I now have quarterly meetings with Bernard Gloster, Ciarán Devane and members of the board. Disability is a priority within the board and we are now meeting regularly. It also gives us the opportunity to discuss and tease out items such as those raised in the debate. I and the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, and our officials met with Bernard Gloster, Ciarán Devane, Brendan Dunne and Fergus Finlay last Tuesday.

The motion also call on Government to ensure recruitment to the community disability network teams is a priority within the HSE service plan. In the recruitment campaign, and this was referenced by Senator Maria Byrne, we got 495 applications in a four-week period to work in our disability teams and the wider disability area. Of those applications, 125 of them never worked in the disability sector before or never worked within HSE section 38 or section 39 organisations. They are completely new recruits. The others are within section 38 or section 39 organisations or the HSE and looking to come in to work in the disability area. The interviews for those will start in the next two weeks. To get 495 applications in a four-week period from people showing an interest in disability is commendable.

Of the 800 therapy posts we have funded in the past three years, 397 of them are filled, which means that I still have 50% in funding for 50% of posts to fill.

I have also removed the panels. Any Member who meets staff from the HSE will know they always speak about the panels and the struggle because the panels hold things up. For Donegal, Galway and Waterford we have removed the panel situation. If somebody in Dublin and wants to go back to live in Donegal, for example, and they are number 99 on the panel waiting to transfer to Donegal, there is now no panel. The person can email HR directly saying they would like to move to Donegal. The person will be interviewed and will be facilitated with a move. This is to blow the panels apart along with this idea of waiting for it to go around. I hope that when I can demonstrate in Donegal, Galway and Waterford that this system works, we can move to other counties - Senator Currie has gone - and I will then be looking at the more densely populated areas to see what we need to do that.

The motion further calls on the Government to provide for the financial relief for parents and family carers who have been forced to pay privately for assessments. Under a Labour Party motion earlier last year, I made a commitment on two counts. One is that I would put regional assessment hubs in place. Eight out of the nine of them are in place. I also committed to looking at the reimbursement piece. I am glad to say we secured funding in the budget; not an awful lot but enough to get us going and get it started to be able to demonstrate its effectiveness. I am working with the Taoiseach and his office on this, as is Noel Byrne in my office and the Department, to devise a mechanism whereby we can do support on a reimbursement scheme.

The motion also calls on the Government to ensure an adequate and responsive complaints mechanism is in place where there is a failure to provide services. I cannot talk to the whole operation of that, but within the CDNTs we have the family forum.That is one of the ways of holding people to account. At the same time, if that is an issue, we will make it available to investigate how a mechanism could be put in place.

The motion calls on the Government to "carry out an audit on the spread of provision for respite services throughout the country, evaluating the provision, and to prepare a plan to address the provision of relief, emergency, short-term, overnight and longer-stay respite where deficits are identified". I would add shared care, after-school care and Saturday clubs to that list. I have a five-page document relating to a complete audit I have done in respect of respite services. I texted my private secretary to get it down to me here in order that I could show it to Senators. He has left. I have it and have no problem in making it available. Jenny, who is from the Department and who works in the area of respite, and I would like to go full tilt and where we have 3-7 or 4-7, as Senator Byrne said, to be going full tilt 7-7.

Initially, I secured €10 million for respite services in the budget. I actually got an increase on that the night before the budget. The latter was not included in the budget documentation. The increase brought the total amount up to €15 million. This will address the position of the over-65s to whom Senator Doherty referred. It will also cover Saturday clubs and the provision of some level of supports to who are over 65 years of age. This was an ask from the Disability Federation of Ireland and the National Federation of Voluntary Service Providers and I have addressed it. There is work to be done with the providers. Maybe it is not with the providers people are currently going to. Perhaps maybe there is something different that could be done. The Department is working on that.

Shared care, after-school care and Saturday clubs are extremely important to me. I would also include Christmas, Easter and summer camps. To be fair, Bernard Gloster, the CEO of the HSE, is working with me. He is trying to be pragmatic and agile in how we can work with organisations that are really good and already doing it in order that we establish a routine in the lives of the young and the not so young. There are children who are transitioning and who have reached the age of 18 or 19. What we are doing is establishing a routine and stability in order that everything will not fall off a cliff when someone reaches 18 years of age.

The motion calls on the Government to increase the capital budget for respite houses and residential units and create and publish a register of respite services throughout the country. Senator Kyne brought this up. He is dead right. Community access support services are only for people who have come out of congregated settings. That is really what they are about. They do not work. In the past three budgets, I would have ring-fenced funding relating to houses. Take the example of Meath, and houses in the north of the county versus those in the south. I am not the person in the HSE with operational responsibility in this regard who should be telling the CEO where houses are needed. Those with responsibility in this area should know where houses are needed. In that context, the likes of the Brothers of Charity said "That is a great house. If we could buy that, we could have two front doors and four that could function correctly." For a child with sensory needs, the second front door would allow them to have a more quiet space to themselves. The Brothers of Charity - not only them, but also other charitable organisations - could buy that house and would have the opportunity to negotiate a revenue stream to operationalise it . This is where we need a little bit of give and take. In the context of the disability action plan that was launched, the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage will have to assist me in respect of that piece. There is more than €300 million allocated for housing. It is not just for housing; it is for independent living and support for independent living. There will also be a need to look at the respite element.

The motion also calls for us to create and publish a register of respite service. There is absolutely no problem doing that. It is on my desk, but I would like to have a good rattle it at it first in order to see how many of them I can bring up to full tilt.

The motion also proposes that the Government report progress on the implementation of the home care strategy. This is out of my league. I am waiting to hear what the Minister is going to say in this regard. The Minister of State, Deputy Butler, will be leading on this. The Department's position on updating the national carers' strategy is that before commencing work, consideration will need to be given to the breadth of the stakeholder consultation. Obviously, stakeholder consultation is ongoing. I will have the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, respond to all Senators on what is happening in relation to statutory home care and to the national carers' strategy, along with the progress on enhanced community care. I am aware that enhanced community care is going really well in communities. Those involved are recruiting really well. Sometimes I am a bit jealous to see what is happening on that side when I am struggling to recruit on my side.

The motion calls on the Government to "examine and report on the feasibility of providing a bespoke programme within the School Completion Programme". Work is under way in that regard. The plan identified a number of priority groups that continue to be under-represented in the context of higher education and that need additional focus and support. These priority groups include young people who are caregivers. I compliment the Minister, Deputy Harris, on what he has done in this space. The national access office at the University of Galway is absolutely phenomenal and they always look to young carers, as should all third level institutions at all times.

Senator Clonan's first amendment proposes to “abandon the proposals contained in the Green Paper on Disability Reform 2023 to medically categorise disabled citizens on their capacity to work.” To be fair, I was wondering how I was going to respond to that. Senator Cummins said that it is still out for consultation. To be quite honest, it is out for consultation and nobody is by any manner or means saying that what is out there is right. I compliment the Senator for raising this time and again. It gives everybody the opportunity to contribute to the debate and to hear from those on all sides. I do not know how anybody could medically assess 500,000 people right around the country. I am of the view that there are huge challenges in what is laid out, but this does not mean we should not see the consultation completed in order that we might be fair and transparent and hear what is being said.

The second amendment proposes: "in light of the wording in the amendment to the Constitution on Care in the proposed new Article 42B, to immediately ratify and implement the optional protocol on the UNCRPD.” I am a big fan of implementing the optional protocol. I have always said that. It is in the programme for Government. The Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Deputy O'Gorman, supports ratifying the optional protocol. The Senator will have had the update before. Because Senator Clonan is such an advocate for those with disabilities, I sometimes find myself repeating what I said previously to him. At this moment, there is a scoping exercise going on in relation to the optional protocol. If the Attorney General came back in the morning and said it was okay to go, I would be the first one, along with the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, to pick up the phone and say "We are going for this". It is not that I think it would be the right thing to do: ratifying is the right thing to do, but we cannot do it without the support of the Attorney General. That is just the way it is. It is a rights-based approach. I feel strongly about that.