Gareth Scahill (Fine Gael)

The Minister is welcome. I welcome the opportunity to speak on the National Human Rights Strategy for Disabled People 2025-2030. I want to use this time to highlight feedback I have got from a lot of people and others I have engaged with on the ground, so that when we look back after the term of this strategy, we will have hopefully addressed some of these and things will have moved on. At its core, the strategy is about fairness and making sure everyone, no matter their ability, has the same chance to live, work and take part in their community. It is about giving people opportunities and not obstacles with regard to access to work and employment. When we talk about rights and inclusion, access to work has to be front and centre. People with disabilities do not want handouts, as the Minister has said. They want opportunities and the chance to use their skills and creativity to contribute to workplaces that value what they bring to them. We have seen what can be done when that is done well. An example in my area is Triest Press in Roscommon, a social enterprise that shows exactly what is possible when inclusion and ambition go hand in hand. Triest Press was recently awarded third place in the innovative work, innovative, social enterprise, WISE, category at the European Social Economy Awards in Spain. It was the only Irish social enterprise to be named a finalist and invited to the social economy summit 2025 in Spain. That is an incredible achievement and a real credit to everybody involved. It also proves the standards that are possible.

However, we need to make sure more people have those opportunities. Too many people with disabilities are still being left out of the workplace, as my colleague has mentioned. This is not because they cannot work, but because the right supports are not there, or employers do not know where to turn to for help. I know that supports have increased in the past budget, but the Department of enterprise has introduced a new enterprise hub, which has all of the information for them in one place. Something like that would be useful on the disability side of things as well. We need to back employers who want to do the right thing, to give them clear information, practical supports and confidence that the State is with them every step of the way. I also want to talk about funding for support workers. A huge part of that is making sure proper funding is there for support workers. I have heard from many people who tell me that the funding available just does not go far enough and it is holding them back from working the hours they want to work or taking up new jobs. We cannot talk about inclusion and equality if the supports that make those things possible are not properly funded. If we are serious about equality, we have to put our money where our mouth is and ensure that people get the level of support they need to work independently.

On that subject, I recently had a group here from the Brothers of Charity, an advocacy group from Roscommon. They gave me a number of pointers. However, in relation to staffing, a lack of staff in the services at the moment is upsetting for the people supported. Services are short-staffed and a lot of that means people have to miss planned activities. Sometimes they do not know what staff will be on duty when they come in. They have agency staff filling in who do not know them or anything about them. This is very difficult for the people supported. They would like the Government to make working in the disability sector more attractive for staff so that more people will apply for work with people with disabilities. That was just one piece of feedback. Another was about funding for day services. Day services for people with disabilities are funded for 30 hours per week. This feedback came from service users in Roscommon. Staff working hours are only 30 hours for a five-day week, yet people cannot afford to live on that many hours. This is why they are finding it so hard to get and keep staff. This funding means services are open for shorter days and people supported cannot have a proper job or go to college. They need support staff for a full day, not six hours per day. Many people with disabilities want to work and go to college. They want to contribute to their communities. They cannot do this when their service ends at 3.30 p.m. They need day services funded for 39 hours per week, which will help get more staff. It would also mean people supported could achieve all the things they want to achieve.

I would also like to talk about the childcare side of things. Inclusion does not just start at work. It starts earlier than that in childcare and education. Too many parents have told me that children cannot be looked after under the access and inclusion model programme because the hours they need are not covered. That means parents, often mothers, are forced to cut back or leave work altogether. One mother I spoke to works as an occupational therapist helping children with autism and additional needs. However, she has had to reduce her own hours because AIM does not cover the full day her child needs for care. Here we have a policy that is actually making staff shortages worse in another critical area. It is a clear example that the policy unintentionally creates problems somewhere else. We need to look at a proper review of AIM and make sure it is flexible, fair and fit for purpose so that parents are not being penalised for wanting to work or to provide for their families.

Another area I would like to highlight is accessibility. With the same service users, I recently did an accessibility survey of our town at home. It is a key part of inclusion. They do not want to be forgotten. As we talk about revitalising and rejuvenating our towns and villages nationwide, we have to make sure that accessibility is built into the process from the start. Accessibility is not an add-on. It is a right. It affects people with physical, sensory and intellectual disabilities and many others. Local authorities need to adopt this strategy as well. They need to engage with all local groups and representative bodies and not react later when the problems arise. As I mentioned, I recently did a walkability survey with a group of clients from the Brothers of Charity. It was a real eye-opener, I have to say. We walked through town and saw first-hand the barriers that people faced every day like uneven footpaths, poor signage, narrow doorways, crossings, kerbing and even access to public transport. We had to go back 100 m, cross the road and travel 200 m to access public transport. When you see these problems, it is easy to address them, but this needs to be built in earlier when we are doing these strategies.

I will not go on. The national strategy for disabled people 2025 to 2030 has the potential to be a real turning point. I wish the Minister luck with it, and I hope we can work with her on it. I felt the need to highlight some of those areas that people in Roscommon have addressed with me.