Erin McGreehan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State. I want to ask the Department of Health to ensure accessibility to healthcare for all patients accessing and engaging with healthcare providers. I ask that all patients are corresponded and communicated with in as accessible a manner as is technologically and physically possible, taking into account the various disabilities within our population. I want to stress the critical importance, which I know the Minister of State understands, of ensuring accessible information and correspondence for individuals, particularly those with disabilities. It is our ethical and moral responsibility to guarantee that everyone, regardless of their abilities, can fully access and comprehend information essential to their health and well-being.

This Commencement matter debate is inspired by two people, a young woman, Niamh Kilcawley, and my sister, Lorna McGreehan, who are both visually impaired and find it really difficult to access healthcare in a fair and equitable way. For example, Niamh contacted me this week. She had received a letter from the hospital. Niamh cannot read the letter. If I closed my eyes and lost my notes, I would be lost. Imagine a scenario where a young woman receives a letter. Her mother rang the hospital and asked if there was no other way that her daughter, who is visually impaired and cannot see this piece of paper, can communicate with the hospital. The answer was "No". She must reply via post. There was no way of emailing it. In this day and age, it is ridiculous, with all the technology we have.

I speak to my sister quite regularly on her interaction with healthcare providers. It is on her file that she is visually impaired, yet when she goes to an appointment, people might wave at her down the hallway. My sister, sitting there, cannot see and feels stupid. She feels abandoned and does not know where she is going. Imagine doing that to somebody when that is on a person's file, with no concern about it. Niamh and Lorna are unfortunately not alone. If it happens to them, it happens to so many more.

We and all our healthcare providers have responsibilities under Article 25 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which is the right to enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health without discrimination. Under the public sector duty section, section 42 of the Act that set up the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission, IHREC, the performance and functions of the public sector must eliminate discrimination and promote equality of opportunity and treatment of its staff and persons who it provides a service to. We can see that the public sector is not upholding the legislation and obligations that these Houses put on it. I would like the Department of Health to mandate this and to ask IHREC to do its duty to uphold section 42, because there have been no cases under the public sector duty section. It has the right to take people to court. There is a complaint procedure. There was a complaint but not a resolution. When people complain to hospitals about not being able to access their own healthcare information, files and so on, it is a complaint procedure, not a resolution.