Laura Harmon (Labour)

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire. I was at the launch of the strategy. I was there to support it, and we wish the Minister well. We need her to succeed with this strategy. The strategy is a significant milestone in the advancement of disability rights in Ireland. For that, it must be welcomed. In ratifying the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and in bringing forth this strategy, Ireland has said to every disabled person living in our society that their rights matter, just like everyone else's. That is significant and it should not be dismissed. However, disabled people have too often listened to hopeful words and kind speeches but have been left crying out for the real action they need to get on with living their lives with independence and dignity.Therefore, it is very understandable that the publication of this strategy has been met with just cautious optimism from disabled people. Without urgent and sustained action across government, the strategy risks becoming another document left to gather dust on the shelf. We cannot have that. If it is really to deliver change for disabled people, it must be backed by action, not lip service. Far too often in the past, despite many promises, children and their parents had to resort to protests or media interviews to get access to therapies and assessments that they need. That has to end now.

The Government must fund and implement this strategy adequately. While significant progress has been made in our society in recent decades, there remains a long way to go and disabled people continue to face many systemic barriers in their lives. Shockingly, we know that Ireland has the worst employment rate for disabled people in the EU, at 20% below the average employment rate. This is a shocking statistic. We need targeted pathways when it comes to employment and education. There has been some progress made in educational attainment, but we still lag behind. In the Labour Party's recent alternative budget, ahead of budget 2026, we called for additional investment in the form of a 20% increase in funding for employability and workability programmes to support people with disabilities in the workplace. My party also called for a comprehensive employment strategy for people with disabilities to lay out the clear actions the Government will take to address this issue.

Meanwhile, assessment of need waiting lists are spiralling. Children and families are trapped without the supports that they need. We have well over 10,000 children waiting for assessments of need and essential therapies and the staffing and retention crisis in children's disability network teams, CDNTs, is compounding this issue. Without a properly resourced workforce, this strategy's ambitions will not be realised. The Government's disability services action plan stated that 180 new CDNT posts and 300 therapy assistant posts in 2025 were essential to progressing disability services. However, in April last, nearly one in five funded CDNT posts was left vacant. This is simply not good enough and it is leaving children without the supports they need. There is not much detail in this strategy on how the Government hopes to address recruitment and retention in disability support services. To improve transparency and accountability, the Labour Party has also called for the monthly publication of waiting lists for assessments of need and therapies, so that we can see the updated figures on a monthly basis.

Accessibility remains a major barrier for disabled people. Too many of them face needless barriers that can exclude them from the most simple of daily activities. Public transport is one of these barriers. Active travel infrastructure is failing disabled people. Something as simple as a footpath that needs repairing can represent a real barrier to disabled people being able to access their community. Accessible infrastructure is not negotiable for disabled people. Rather, it is essential to allow them to live their lives in the way that they deserve.

We also need to do more on housing. All new builds should have universal design embedded and local authorities must also be supported to provide the necessary housing and community support to enable independent living. The Government must take this opportunity to fully implement and resource the national housing strategy for disabled people, including funding for technical advisers in the local authorities. The budget was a missed opportunity to introduce the cost-of-disability support payment as well. We need to see this addressed in future. We want this welcome strategy to succeed. The Minister outlined the pillars of the strategy but it needs to be resourced.