Pauline Tully (Sinn Fein)

I welcome the national human rights strategy for disabled people. I welcome, in particular, the fact that disabled people were consulted and that their views shaped the document. A number of DPOs claim not to have been consulted. A promise was made some years ago to draw up a register of DPOs. This has not been done. That is a pity. I would like to see it done in order that we can identify the DPOs made up of disabled persons. They should be consulted by Departments and public bodies, and properly resourced.

A strategy, no matter how good, is of no use if it is not implemented. We need action plans and resources provided to ensure that strategies are implemented. The cost of disability was identified in the consultation process, which the Minister acknowledged. Yet, as a result of budget 2026, disabled people have been left poorer. There has been no cost of disability payment or one-off payments of the type we saw over the past few years, but the cost of living continues to increase. That does not auger well. People hoped there would be something in the budget that would address the cost of disability.

A number of pillars have been identified and, as the Minister said, they are across many Departments. I was a member of the disability matters committee during the term of the previous Government. People from different Departments and public bodies regularly came before us and claimed that disability was an issue for the Department of children and disability. It is not; it is an issue for every Department and public body. Obviously, they are all interlinked, and one impacts the other.

The first matter is education. We must recognise that this is something that is lifelong in nature. It starts as soon as a child is born. I am concerned about the lack of public health nurses in certain areas, particularly as this means that children about whom there are concerns are not identified early enough. That needs to be addressed in order that early intervention can be implemented, something every parent says is key. The lack of early intervention hampers educational attainment. Many children are not in appropriate school settings or are not in school settings at all and are not receiving therapies in the community to help them to thrive. All of those issues need to be addressed.

I visited St. Aidan's Comprehensive School in Cootehill, County Cavan, yesterday. It opened a class for autistic children this year. It had to convert an existing classroom and a couple of office spaces in order to make the space appropriate. It was happy to do that, but the school knows it will require a second class. It is willing to open one next September, but it does not have the physical space. The school has been told by the Department that it will not provide a modular building for this or any other purpose. The Department is no longer providing modular units. I am concerned about that. The Minister for education needs to clarify the position. This matter does not fall under the remit of the Minister present, but I want to know whether the Department of education is no longer providing modular builds to schools. If it is not, I want to know why that is the case. Some of these modular units are very high quality. The school in question would be willing to use one. It commissioned an extension four years ago but this has still not been developed. It now needs more space than the extension would provide. It will have to cap its numbers, including in the context of those with additional needs.

There is a lack of ambition for many of our disabled children, especially those who attend special schools or are in special classes. There is always an assumption that many of these children are incapable of learning. We need to be more open to accepting different methods of learning and we need to open up opportunities for our children and young adults. Communication is a major issue and leads to extreme frustration in many cases. We need to be open to considering new technologies to help young people.

We have the highest level of unemployment among disabled people in the EU. That needs to be addressed head-on. The wage subsidy scheme does not increase in line with the minimum wage, which is something that needs to happen. I recently spoke to a man with a visual impairment who is employed in the Civil Service. He has nothing to do at work because he has not been provided with the adequate and necessary supports to do his job. He goes to his job and wants to work, but feels useless because he is left doing nothing. That is ridiculous. We want disabled people in the workplace, but we want them to be able do their jobs and to be given the supports they require. We do not want them left sitting with nothing to do.

Disabled entrepreneurs are a group of people that are often forgotten about. The support they require very different to those employees. We need to encourage entrepreneurship among disabled people.

Regarding independent living, houses need to be constructed to a universal design standard. Houses are currently required only to be wheelchair visitable under Part M of the building regulations. This is something that needs to be reviewed and updated. Disabled people are often the longest on social housing waiting lists because there is a lack of accessible houses being built. We need to build accessible houses because they will benefit older people who may develop mobility issues. We also need the right to personal assistants. Depending on the nature of a disability, anybody who requires a personal assistant to allow them to live independently cannot be truly independent without one. I am not talking about a carer, but rather someone who works for a disabled person and does whatever is required by that person to help them live, work and move around.

The practice of putting young people in nursing homes has to end. They are put there without their consent and are often left for years without the proper supports. The lack of support in the community for people who are survivors of stroke or those who have acquired neurological conditions impacts their ability to live independently. I have heard from people who have been in car accidents and who went to the National Rehabilitation Hospital where they got wonderful support. When they came home, however, there was absolutely nothing. It was as if they fell off a cliff edge. As a result, they regress. We need the neurological teams that were promised in the programme for Government to be properly staffed in each area.

I am concerned about the number of young adults who have been put into residential settings, which can be poorly managed, in particular those that are privately owned.We often see untrained staff in those. There was a situation recently where two male carers were with one female resident. I do not think that is appropriate whatsoever. There seems to be the use of chemical restraint - the use of drugs to restrain someone - and a lack of activities being provided for the people in residential care. Many of these are private operators. Their main concern is profit. They have a high staff turnover, which is not good especially if many of these people are autistic. They like routine. The HSE is paying for these facilities, so it is taxpayers' money going into the facilities, yet they are not being properly managed or run for the residents in them. Children sometimes require residential accommodation because the family reaches crisis point because they are not being given the supports to manage the children at home. It is a much preferable and cheaper option to put those supports into the family home so that the child can stay there and not end up in a residential setting, with everybody upset by it. There are many other issues I would love to address but I have unfortunately run out of time.