Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity)
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I move:

That Dáil Éireann: notes that the Department of Social Protection's Green Paper on Disability Reform:

— proposes to introduce three "tiers" of payments depending on a person's supposed ability to work;

— was published with no consultation with disabled people, and is opposed by a wide range of disabled people and their organisations;

- will do nothing to lift disabled people out of poverty;

— if implemented, would pressure many disabled people into work that is unsuitable;

— proposes a cruel and discriminatory system that international experience has shown causes undue stress for disabled people and endangers their mental and physical health by demanding they go through a job-seeker process not designed for disabled people;

— is based on a flawed idea that it is a straightforward process to assess people with disabilities, and those with invisible and episodic disabilities will face particular difficulties under this system; and

— puts no obligations on employers to make work accessible, despite Ireland having very weak legal obligations on workplace accessibility;

further notes that:

— the intervention of many disabled people into the debate around the Government's Referendum on the 40th Amendment to the Constitution "The Care Amendment", highlighted injustices they face due to ableism and the failures of the State to guarantee their rights and was an important factor in defeating that referendum;

— in a report by the Department of Social Protection in 2021 entitled "The Cost of Disability in Ireland" the estimated cost of living with a disability was between €8,700 - €12,300 per year, accounting for inflation this would now be between €9,822 and €13,886 per year;

— one in five who are unable to work due to long-standing health problems live in consistent poverty and one in two in deprivation;

— due to ableist and discriminatory obstacles, disabled people are hit harder by the many social crises facing the wider population, and disabled people are:

— twice as likely to be homeless;

— more likely to be unemployed or underemployed, with Ireland having the highest level of unemployment among disabled people in the European Union;

— due to lack of supports, forced out of education and twice as likely to leave school early; and

— more likely to suffer ill health, with 25 per cent reporting "bad or very bad health", 43 per cent depression, and a quarter have unmet health needs;

— disabled people who are women, non-binary, LGBTQI, immigrants, members of the Traveller community, or other ethnic groups face additional challenges to accessing services and worse outcomes as a result;

— the State has failed children with disabilities and their parents/guardians, and 8,893 children are now overdue for assessment of need, with 6,963 waiting more than three months, and 17,157 waiting for first contact with a children's disability network team, with a waiting list for treatment of over 110,000;

— an economic system that sees workers as a commodity to increase profit, and sees supports and rights for people as a cost, will always marginalise and discriminate against people with disabilities and foster a culture of ableism;

— there is a long history of systemic marginalisation of disabled people by the State, with policies of institutionalisation and a chronic lack of investment in services, supports, care, research, and an outsourcing of care to religious organisations, charities and the family, and these policies have compounded discrimination and injustice;

— the State has resisted disabled people seeking rights through the courts and forced them to campaign for services and supports, in particular from the social protection and healthcare systems, with many disabled people having to constantly reapply for a medical card or other entitlements; and

— the means-testing of Disability Allowance, Carer's Allowance, medical cards and many other supports results in huge stress and pressure on disabled people and their families, with many unable to form families, and vulnerable to abusive relationships; and

calls on the Government to:

— immediately scrap the Green Paper on Disability Reform, to genuinely consult with disabled people about any reforms, and commit to no linking of payments to work;

— introduce a system of non-means-tested universal payments that cover the real costs of having a disability and provide income security to disabled people;

— introduce a guaranteed living wage for carers that is not means tested;

— massively expand personal assistance hours as a right to ensure that there is personal assistance to all who need it to study, work, socialise and live a full life, and guarantee that all personal assistants have decent pay and conditions;

— immediately ratify the Optional Protocol to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities; and

— introduce a constitutional amendment to assert equality for disabled people and to guarantee for all the rights to supports needed to fully engage in society as a basic democratic right.

I will share time with Deputies Gino Kenny and Paul Murphy. There is a new force in Irish society. The more than 1-million-strong disabled community, led by a strong and brave group of activists, has already made its mark in 2024. We saw it first in the care referendum, when disabled activists raised their voices against an amendment which would go no further than "strive" in terms of State support. That intervention was a definite factor in the defeat of the referendum by a crushing margin and I think the Government knows it. Then we saw a coalition of disabled people's organisations raise its voice against the Government's Green Paper which aimed to link disability payments to capacity for work as determined by medical assessment. That was a copy of the cruel and discredited system in place in the UK, despite all the denials from the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Humphreys, and the Government.

Last Friday, the Government scrapped the Green Paper rather than face into another clash with the disabled community in an election year. I believe it conceded on Friday rather than have to vote in support of the Green Paper tonight. The Government will promote a narrative that puts the changes down to the arrival of Simon Harris in the Taoiseach’s office, but such a narrative lacks credibility. Simon Harris was part of a Cabinet that, freedom of information now reveals, conspired against any wording for the care referendum that might have granted disabled people and carers greater rights and cost the State more money. He also sat at Cabinet while the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, introduced the Green Paper without any consultation with disabled persons' organisations. It is the members of the disabled community, not the Taoiseach, who are responsible for the change of policy, and I offer each and every one of them who raised their voices my sincere congratulations.

In 2021, the Department of Social Protection commissioned an Indecon report on the costs of disability in Ireland. The report found that the average costs were somewhere between €8,700 and €12,300. The cost of living has increased since then, and then some. The equivalent figures for today are between €10,000 and €14,000, including the cost of heating when you are confined to your house for most of the day and the cost of taxis when you need them to venture out, and that is before you even get to the cost of making modifications to your own home. The cost of disability is a major contributing factor leading to one in two disabled people living in deprivation, one in five living in consistent poverty and the rate of homelessness being twice what it is for the rest of the population.

What needs to be done to tackle this? We need to provide all persons with a disability with a universal payment, scrap the means test for receiving that payment, set it at a level that fully covers the cost of disability and allow disabled people to work and earn money without it affecting that payment. Disability activists are gathering at the gates of Leinster House at 11 a.m. to promote these demands, and I hope members of the media listening in to the debate will cover their action.

The motion states, “the State has failed children with disabilities and their parents/guardians, and 8,893 children are now overdue for assessment of need, with 6,963 waiting more than three months, and 17,157 waiting for first contact with a children's disability network team, with a waiting list for treatment of over 110,000”. How much human misery is stored up within those statistics? Of course, that is without mentioning the large number of parents of children with autism who still do not know whether their child will have a place in school this September.

On 7 May, the High Court will hear a case taken by two Cork parents on behalf of their daughter, who has been diagnosed with intellectual disability, autism and epilepsy. Her assessment of need outlines the need for physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech and language therapy and psychological therapy, but not one of these services has ever been provided by the State. The parents are making the case the State should be compelled to provide those services. The State is planning to fight the case and spend nearly €30,000 in doing so. Senator Clonan's Disability (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2023 also aims to compel the State to provide services identified by an assessment of need. Will the Minister tell the House whether the Government will support or oppose that proposed legislation?

I will close my opening remarks by reading into the record the words of a number of young disability activists. Áine O'Hara of Chronic Collective said yesterday that disabled people are forced to fundraise for medical treatment, forced to leave the country for surgery, forced to depend on family and friends for vital care due to severely lacking access to personal assistant hours, and forced into poverty. She said Ireland is not an equitable country for disabled people and that we need to change this. She said we need a social change, a switch from viewing disabled people as a burden, issue or problem into seeing them as the vibrant, knowledgeable and valuable communities they are. Kayleigh McKevitt of Access for All said disabled people still have a long way to go and she hopes they get there before the next generation of young disabled people have to fight. The mental health activist Blezzing Dada identified individualism, ableism, capitalism and fascism as obstacles on the road to disability justice, stating:

Ableism convinced you that your health is untouchable if you do x, y & z. Capitalism convinced you to return to “normal” so the rich can continue to profit off bad health.

It is interesting that all these young disabled activists, fresh from defeating the Government on two fronts, identified the need for radical social change from below. I fully concur with this sentiment. The ableist, capitalist system, which puts profit before people and devalues disabled people because it feels as though it is less likely to squeeze profit from them, is at the root of the problems here. We need a society that will, in the words of Karl Marx, allow each to contribute to society according to their ability and to take from society according to their needs, that is, a truly human and genuinely democratic and socialist society.

Gino Kenny (Dublin Mid West, People Before Profit Alliance)
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Disability justice is social justice and social justice is disability justice. The Green Paper that was scrapped earlier this week was straight out of the Tory handbook. If we look at what the disability payment scandal did to people in Britain, it shows that pushing people to the margins compounds a terrible issue. Disabled people disproportionately suffer from poverty, alienation and deprivation in terms of employment and living. They suffer discrimination in employment in particular. You and I may not suffer that, but somebody who is disabled may do so, and the way in which this discrimination happens is very insidious.

There is a broad spectrum of justice for people with disabilities, but I will touch on one specific issue relating to children. The situation relating to assessments of need is pretty farcical. Assessments of need are a good concept. The concept is that once the assessment has been given, the services are given to the child, but that is not happening. There is the even more bizarre set of circumstances whereby the Disability Act 2005 is constantly breached by the Government in respect of children trying to get these services. When parents come into our office regarding this issue, my heart sinks because I know the road they are going to go down. The road is almost a dead end in terms of services for their child. If a child does not get an early intervention in the form of speech and language therapy or any of the other vital services, the consequences will be pretty bad, and the fact a child cannot get those kinds of services is horrendous.

The optional protocol to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, UNCRPD, has not been implemented, which does not make sense. I would like to hear the Minister's views on that.

I have first-hand knowledge of personal assistance, given I was a personal assistant for a long time, particularly in the context of people who want to be able to live independently in their own home. We cannot put a price on that service. It is really important that the pay and conditions of personal assistants are improved because it is a vital job for assisted living and trying to give people independence. Moreover, there is communication and a social value to personal assistance and it is undervalued in our society.

Hopefully, with this motion and other motions going forward, social justice can be done for those who are living with disabilities in Ireland.

Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE)
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I want to start by thanking all the disabled people's organisations that have participated in preparing this motion. Their demands are front and centre, which is exactly as it should be. So far, there is no sign of a Government countermotion, so I presume that means the Government is not going to oppose our motion and will allow it to pass. Before there is uproar and celebration in the Visitors Gallery, I would warn that this Government has a long and not very proud history of allowing motions to pass and then not doing anything about the things that are passed in the motion. I would say that if this passes this evening, while that is obviously welcome, it needs to be implemented.

There are six main demands in the motion and the Government has so far fully committed to one, which is to immediately scrap the Green Paper. That is, of course, welcome. What was proposed was a Tory-style workfare regime reminiscent of the film "I, Daniel Blake". I recall that when I first raised this with the former Taoiseach, Deputy Leo Varadkar, he said that "I, Daniel Blake" was a good movie but one-sided and that you should watch “Benefits Street” to see the other side of the story, encapsulating this Tory mindset of deserving and undeserving people with disabilities. The fact that the Government came up with such draconian proposals in the first place reveals an awful lot about the attitude to people with disabilities. Unfortunately, the Tory mindset is not gone as a consequence of the decision to scrap the Green Paper. For too long, disabled people have been treated appallingly by the State, committed to institutions, forced to live in poverty and isolation, prevented from participating equally in society and denied fundamental human rights. That has to stop. Disabled people are uniting and organising to demand their rights. It is high time that the Government and the State started really listening to them and started consulting with them in a meaningful way, rather than proposing policies from on high that fail to meet their needs.

One hopes that the scrapping of the Green Paper is a step in that direction. Let us see. There will certainly be a push to demand it. That would not have happened without the determined campaign of resistance ever since the Green Paper was first published. The Government attempted to ignore that and attempted to push on, but disabled activists did not back down and, in the end, they won this important victory. That and the massive “No” vote in the care referendum should put the Government and the institutions of the State on notice that ignoring and mistreating people with disabilities and carers will not be possible any longer. The Government must start taking meaningful steps towards guaranteeing equal rights for disabled people. Tokenism will not be tolerated. The Government is awash with cash and has more than enough money that should be put where its mouth is. There must be no more striving to support. We need real action and real resources now.

We have heard from disabled people's organisations about what kind of system and resources they need. They want universal payments that cover the real costs of having a disability and provide them with reliable income security. No one should have to live in poverty and certainly not because they have a disability, but poverty and deprivation are what many thousands of people in this country endure on a daily basis. One in five people who is unable to work due to long-standing health problems lives in consistent poverty and one in two lives in deprivation. That is shameful. Disabled people are twice as likely to be homeless and far less likely to have a job, with the highest rate of unemployment in the EU.

It is important to point out that the State is not just failing to meet the needs of people who are disabled. The State is disabling people by failing to put in place the mechanisms to support people. A key mechanism through which this is done is the dehumanising and traumatising system of means tests. It is degrading and time-consuming and it wastes resources that should be used to help people instead of forcing them to continually prove and re-prove that they need assistance. It has no purpose other than as a form of State discipline, a way of discouraging people from getting what they are entitled to, humiliating them for having needs and minimising what the State so reluctantly doles out. It situates everyone in need of assistance as a potential welfare cheat, not to be trusted. That is what Deputy Leo Varadkar was getting at with his “Benefits Street” reference. This should have no place anywhere in our social welfare system and it must be abolished.

We in People Before Profit stand for universal benefits and universal public services for all. For carers, this must provide a real living wage that recognises the essential work they do, day in, day out. Globally, capitalism saves $11 trillion a year from unpaid care work and many trillions of dollars more by systematically underpaying paid care workers, most of whom are women. We need a massive expansion of personal assistance hours to enable people to participate fully in society and we also need to ensure that personal assistants and all other care workers get the pay and conditions they deserve. We cannot continue with a society that gives golden handshakes to bankers and executives but the cold shoulder to disabled people and carers. It is welcome that the new Taoiseach has finally committed to ratifying the optional protocol to the UNCRPD this year but we still have no date as to when this will happen. Time is ticking on this Government and we need it to ratify the protocol now.

He said that the backlog in assessments of need has to be unblocked but we have not seen any details as to how this will happen. Almost 9,000 children are overdue for assessment of need and more than 17,000 are waiting for first contact with a children's disability network team, CDNT. I have figures that an activist got from extensive FOI requests, which indicate that almost 9,000 children have been waiting almost 12 months for those initial contacts. Those FOI replies reveal mistakes across the board in terms of discrepancies in the figures which mean there is a real problem in terms of planning, but it also reveals the cause of these problems and of the massive delay. The vacancy rates across the board for therapists and other staff are through the roof, with a rate of 40% for occupational therapists, 70% for dietitians, 30% for family support workers, 30% for care assistants and 70% for play therapists; I could go on with the list. The result is that even when children get an assessment of need, over 110,000 are on a waiting list for treatment.

The Ombudsman for Children has accused the State of a profound violation of children's rights with regard to disability care. The report Nowhere to Turn aptly describes how children with complex disabilities are left in inappropriate settings for months due to the failure of the State to provide them with home supports. Parents are forced to fight for services for their children that are considered basic human rights in most European countries. The truth is that this State has never cherished all of the children of the nation equally and this Government is continuing that disgraceful tradition of discrimination and neglect. Rather than speculating €100 billion in public money on international markets, as it is planning to do with the future Ireland fund, that should be invested in public services and a better quality of life for all who live here right now. From assessment of need to financial and respite support to parents and carers, and raising pay and conditions for workers in the disability sector, all of the arms of the State need to work together and take responsibility instead of passing the buck between them and outsourcing services to underfunded NGOs reliant on charitable fundraising.

Our final demand in the motion is for a constitutional amendment to assert equality for disabled people and guarantee rights for all. That is what we need.

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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I welcome the opportunity to discuss the important issue of supports for disabled people. I launched the consultation process on the Green Paper last September. It is very important to say that this is all Green Paper ever was - a consultation document - and I want to be very clear about that. Based on the feedback we have received to date, it is clear to me that there are significant concerns about the proposals. I listened to these concerns and I announced last week that we will not proceed with the Green Paper proposals.

Our new Taoiseach has placed a major focus on improving supports for people with disabilities by giving a voice to special education at the Cabinet table through the Minister of State, Deputy Naughton, and by the establishment of a new special Cabinet committee on disability. The Government needs to have a fresh look at how we can best support people with disabilities. I believe this can be best done on a whole-of-government basis through the new Cabinet committee. There are still concerns about the cost of disability, poverty risks and low employment participation by disabled people, which further adds to marginalisation. The Government remains committed to tackling these issues through the new Cabinet committee.

I welcome the broader holistic focus the new Cabinet committee will bring to these issues across government, particularly relating to the provision of services. My Department will use the feedback and submissions we received through the Green Paper public consultation, and there was extensive public consultation, to inform the broader review of disability supports and services under this new Cabinet committee. The Government is also in the process of adopting a new national disability strategy, which will further improve service delivery across all Departments and agencies.

During my time as Minister, I have been very committed to supporting disabled people. I have increased weekly disability payments by €29 per week over the past three years. In budget 2024, I made a number of lump sum payments for disabled people, including a €400 payment in November, a Christmas bonus double payment in December, and a cost-of-living double payment in January. I have been very keen to improve employment opportunities for disabled people. I know how important the wage subsidy scheme is in this regard. My Department is conducting a review of the scheme at present but, in the meantime, I secured an additional €3.7 million to reduce the minimum required hours from 21 to 15 per week. This change came in at the beginning of April. I expect it to result in an increase in the number of people availing of this scheme over the coming months. I am also expanding the reasonable accommodation fund and the disability awareness support scheme, based on a review published by my Department in August of last year. The new scheme will combine the two grants, simplify the application process and extend the eligibility and funding for the seven supports that will be available. I look forward to launching the new reformed scheme in the coming weeks.

I have been pleased to work with Epilepsy Ireland in recent months to extend my Department's free travel scheme to any person who is medically certified as not fit to drive, for 12 months or longer, from July onwards. More than 32,000 people are expected to benefit from this measure this year. For those who sometimes think governments do not listen, we do. That major change to the free travel scheme is a direct result of engagement and collaboration with Epilepsy Ireland.

These changes build on previous measures I introduced to expand my Department's income and employment supports. Under budget 2023, I increased the earnings disregard for disability allowance and the blind pension from €140 to €165 per week. People can now earn up to €165 per week and keep their payment in full, or earn up to €505.10 per week and keep a small portion of their payment and all their secondary benefits.

The Government remains committed to complying with the UNCRPD. Ireland fully ratified this convention in 2018 and is committed to ratifying the optional protocol at the earliest possible date. In this regard, officials in the Department of the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, will this month convene an interdepartmental group to work through issues and enable ratification of the optional protocol. This interdepartmental group will include representation from all relevant Departments, including mine. The Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, will subsequently report to Cabinet on the work of this group.

On assessments of need, the Government and the HSE are strongly committed to the improvement of children's disability services through the Roadmap for Service Improvement 2023-2026. Funding of €16.5 million was provided in both budget 2023 and budget 2024 to address waiting lists for clinical assessments. The Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, engages on a daily basis with people who have disabilities and their families. In fact, only last week, she was in County Monaghan, where she and I met a number of groups from that county, where I am from, and County Cavan to discuss this. She provided additional supports for people with disabilities, particularly in the area of respite.

I know that we need to take a serious and fresh look at how we can better support people with disabilities. Any change in income or employment supports must be looked at in the context of disabled people's access to transport, healthcare, education and career guidance. It needs to be framed in the context of a human rights-based approach and the UN convention. Going forward, my Department will work closely with other Departments across the Government to do this, both through the new national disability strategy and the newly established Cabinet committee on disability. This whole-of-government approach will allow us to best identify the issues people with disabilities face and the most appropriate ways to address them. We will also consult and collaborate with disabled persons' organisations, disability support organisations and disabled people.

We must ensure, whatever we do, that we address the poverty risks, improve employment outcomes for people with disabilities, and mitigate the cost of disability. I am confident that we can all work together on that shared objective.

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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We consulted extensively. The Deputy is wrong.

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The Deputy is wrong. I will give him a list of-----

Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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The next speaking slot is for Sinn Féin, with a number of speakers offering. I ask Deputies to be fair to their colleagues in sticking to their individual time allocations. Deputy Ó Laoghaire is up first. He has five minutes.

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein)
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The announcement last week that the Green Paper on disability payments is being scrapped was received with relief by many people with disabilities. However, it does, of course, raise further questions as to what happens next. In several respects, the consultation on the Green Paper was badly handled. My party's disability spokesperson, Deputy Tully, and I have met well over a dozen groups representing disabled persons, who raised issues regarding the consultation, technology and so on. A big concern and frustration was that while it was a consultation, the initial proposal was not arrived at by co-design. There was a feeling that the priorities of people with disabilities were not built into the process from the outset. The impression was that the Department brought forward a proposal and then sought to consult on that basis. This was one of the big concerns raised with us. I notice some engagement between the Minister and her officials. There may be issues of which I am not aware but these certainly are the issues and concerns that were brought to us.

The proposal, such as it was, had a number of substantial flaws. In terms of the philosophy underpinning it, the biggest flaw was that it conflated the cost of disability with the severity of disability. As we know from the Indecon report and lots of other sources, the cost of disability is based on a range of variables, not just the severity of disability. It can vary a lot depending on whether people live alone, live in a rural or urban setting and all kinds of other factors. There has been a demand for a cost-of-disability payment. In our alternative budget, beyond the general increase in working age payments, we proposed an additional payment increase of up to €20 for people on disability-related payments. More than that is needed. We must examine introducing a specific cost-of-disability payment.

The fact is that people with disabilities in Ireland are far more likely to be at risk of poverty and far less likely to be in employment than not only the general population but also their peers across Europe. We have one of the lowest rates of employment.

The proposals seemed to focus very much on using social welfare as labour activation rather than examining some of the significant obstacles that prevent disabled people from accessing the workplace. I have raised in the past the fact that the wage subsidy scheme has not kept pace with increases to the minimum wage. The differential advantage employers would have in employing people with disabilities has been reduced. Cultural issues also need to be tackled. These relate to the attitudes of employers, who do not always appreciate how people with disabilities can contribute to the workplaces for which those employers are responsible. There are also issues with Intreo. Considerable work needs to be done on the latter. The Green Paper seemed to develop a strategy with three tiers. The Department told us there were no sanctions, but the strategy seemed to be to get Intreo staff to sit on the people in question until they found something, even if the work and training were unsuitable. That is what people heard. I realise the Minister kept on saying there was no sanction but the architecture was being created. I accept the sincerity of the Minister on this and do not believe she was setting out to create a system that would force people with disabilities to go into unsuitable employment. I accept her bona fides but the architecture was being created such that a subsequent Minister could go in the direction I have outlined. If there is a system of three tiers, with one not being reviewed and the implication of the third being that disabled people are capable of working, it is an issue. Many of them are capable of working but they should be helped to work in the way they want rather than forced into unsuitable employment. With a system like the one I have described, the implication is that there is a sanction and that people will eventually be forced into unsuitable work. That might not have been the intention but that is how it was heard.

The question is one of what happens next. There are still issues with and inconsistencies in the disability payments system. You do not get stamps on the disability payment but you do on invalidity payments. The cost-of-disability payment needs to be to the fore in what happens next.

Pauline Tully (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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I, too, welcome the decision to scrap the Green Paper on Disability Reform. My colleagues in Sinn Féin and I had grave reservations about it and had called for it to be binned. As Sinn Féin spokesperson on disability, along with its spokesperson on social protection, Deputy Ó Laoghaire, I met a wide range of disabled people and representatives of disability organisations to discuss the Green Paper. We did this because it was extremely important to hear directly the views of members of the disability community. I am aware the Minister said there was consultation but I am not sure there was consultation with the DPOs prior to the Green Paper’s design. DPOs should have been consulted early in the process and should have been involved in the codesign of any proposals. This would have allayed much of the fear and concern. It would have been a completely different paper or proposal had disabled people been involved.

There have been many complaints about the consultation after the issuing of the Green Paper. Many felt it was not very well organised and demonstrated a total lack of respect for people with disabilities. A concern was that many of the proposals in the Green Paper were based on the outdated medical model rather than the social or rights-based model that underpins the UNCRPD. This further highlights the necessity of ratifying the optional protocol to the UNCRPD. Until this happens, we will continue to hear the Government talk about implementing a rights-based framework for disability although it will in fact deliver further proposals and legislation informed by a medical-model perspective, as we have seen. I am aware the Minister referred in her speech to a new special Cabinet committee on disability. I hope it will meet the DPOs to discuss the issues that need to be addressed. If not, those concerned will be in contravention of the UNCRPD and it will not go anywhere. We all just want to see things progressed in this area.

We have the lowest level of employment among disabled people in the EU. We also have a very high cost of disability. Therefore, we need to see urgent systems change to ensure people do not fall further below the poverty line.

A major issue with the proposals contained in the Green Paper was that they wrongfully conflated the cost of disability with employment and the capacity to work. The paper viewed employment as a way of somehow reducing disability costs, although employment can often increase these costs. For example, there may be transport costs and you may have to find accommodation close to your place of work. You may have to purchase adaptive or assistive technology or employ personal assistants. All these are additional costs. Nowhere in the proposals was there any attempt to deal with the existing barriers that prevent disabled people from taking up employment. The vast majority of disabled people want to work. The issue is much more important than simply earning money because employment opens up social opportunities and gives a feeling of self-worth. The Green Paper does not consider the structural barriers that disabled people face in accessing employment. In this regard, I refer to educational opportunities, the lack of accessible transport, the inaccessibility of the built environment, the lack of accessible jobs, the failure to provide adequate supports and so on.

One of our local election candidates is a wheelchair user based in County Longford. She informed me she has never been in paid employment. She is a very capable young woman of roughly 30 years of age and she has always been in voluntary employment. She is deemed okay to do unpaid work but not paid work. We have to change the system because that is not fair.

Creating a link between the cost of disability and employment suggests people with disabilities are not trying hard enough to find employment. That leads to fears that the proposals were similar to those behind the British welfare reforms that negatively affected disabled people.

While the overall direction of the Green Paper was regressive, some of the proposals should be progressed. For example, we welcome the proposal for higher rates of disability payments. A single disability payment system, properly designed, could make sense as long as it is based on a social or rights-based model. For us, the priority is to ensure people with disabilities are protected from poverty and that we do not make other jurisdictions’ mistake of having punitive work assessments such as those used in Britain.

Many Deputies have raised the lack of supports for children with additional needs and autistic children. I agree completely. The situation in my constituency, Cavan–Monaghan, is dismal. Neither CDNT is functioning and there are huge staff shortages and huge waiting lists for assessments and services. Again, these must be addressed if we are to ensure our children progress and can live fully integrated lives.

Mark Ward (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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I want to use my limited time to speak about how children with disabilities are being failed by the Government. I acknowledge this is more related to the brief of the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, than that of the Minister present, Deputy Humphreys. I will give the example of a young boy from my constituency, whom I will call John for the purpose of anonymity. John is 11 years old and started the assessment-of-needs process in 2020. His mother reports that he is showing signs of ASD and has been waiting for a psychology assessment as part of his assessment of needs. His condition has been deteriorating since 2020. In the past two years, he has missed 40 days of school due to anxiety. Previously, the average was ten. His mother submitted a complaint under the Disability Act to the HSE in May 2023. This was upheld and it was recommended that John receive an assessment of need no later than 5 April 2024. The date 5 April has come and gone and John has still not received his assessment of needs.

John’s situation is not unique. There are thousands of Johns right across the State. It breaks my heart every time I have to send a copy-and-paste answer from the HSE to parents who are desperate to get the help their children need. One such copy-and-paste response states assessments of needs remain delayed as a direct result of Ms Justice Phelan’s March 2022 High Court ruling. The delay in children getting their assessments of need is not because of Ms Justice Phelan’s High Court ruling; it is simply because the Government broke the law. I warned the Government at the time that it was doing so but it carried on regardless. The Government has spent €1.2 million in legal fees fighting parents of children with disabilities.

The Minister for Health, Deputy Donnelly, stated one of his regrets was not amending the legislation immediately. I agree that the legislation should be amended, but not to water it down. It needs to be expanded so children will get the therapies they need, including psychological, occupational and speech and language therapy, in a timely manner. What is happening is an old-fashioned three-card trick, with children being moved from list to list without getting the therapies they need at the end of the process. There is no bigger crime than denying a child the right to reach his or her full potential.

Paul Donnelly (Dublin West, Sinn Fein)
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I welcome the U-turn, flip-flop or withdrawal or whatever word the Minister wants to use with regard to this Green Paper. First and foremost, the biggest congratulations must go to the disability activists who, from the very start, feared the direction of this Green Paper. For me, it really brought up the old saying, "When England sneezes, Ireland catches a cold." With this, we can say that people with disabilities were rightly worried that this English Tory legislation would be implemented by this Government. While the current system for disability is not fit for purpose and reform is badly needed, some of the proposals in the Green Paper were not the answer.

For many people with disabilities, the core issue is that they want to work. It is a much bigger issue than just income. I met a young woman last week while I was canvassing. I have known her for many years. She was very distressed and deeply sad that she was stuck in her home. She wanted to work and put all the things that she had learned and all the studies and courses she had participated in into practice. It was very upsetting to take that time to sit down and talk to her because she saw no hope from all the work that she had done. Employment of people with disabilities opens social possibilities and increases happiness. It has significant mental health benefits. Employers' attitudes need to change. The barriers in place need to be removed and brought down.

We need to start developing a cost-of-living payment. We all remember during Covid the initial shock of most working people when their Covid payment was announced, which led to an immediate flip-flop by the Government to increase it to €350 per week. Many people with disabilities are constantly living in poverty.

We welcome some of the more positive aspects of the paper. Some work can be done to progress them, including the proposals to increase disability payments.

Another young woman in my constituency is in college and is a disability campaigner. She just posted on her Facebook page that it is a victory that the Green Paper has been scrapped. That was the feeling of most people in that sector and of people with disabilities. We now need to see the conversation move to the cost of disability and delivering a cost of disability payment.

Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein)
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I thank the Minister for being here today. I thank Solidarity-People Before Profit for tabling this motion. Much has been covered here. This is about disability justice and disability injustice. Many people have covered the options of trying to get work, proper living accommodation and public transport. There is a myriad of barriers after barriers. I have raised how bad the system is with two Ministers here recently. I can give the name of an individual because she and her mother gave me permission. Katie from Cobh is a 17-year-old girl. She was diagnosed with cerebral palsy when she was around four. She has an issue with her hip. She has been waiting for 14 years for a hip operation. She has been going into hospitals, being told it is cerebral palsy and that she will be too weak, may not be strong enough or may get blood clots. There are excuses after excuses. I met that girl a number of weeks ago. She is now with adult services. She had been lost in the children's system and has now gone into the adult system, which is giving the same excuses about if they did operate, saying she may never walk again, yet there are two surgeons in Delaware and one in Texas who can have this girl walking in six weeks for a cost of €300,000. That is injustice.

Labelling people with a disability because of the failings to ratify the optional protocol is discrimination against those who are less well able-bodied. We mentioned public transport. How do people have an opportunity to even try to get work if they cannot access the opportunity to travel to these places to get work? We are talking about housing crises but nobody has mentioned properly adapted houses that make provision for everybody, abled or not. As for the way we are going about and talking about it, while I welcome that the paper has been scrapped and that some positives can be picked out of it, when talking about social justice or disability justice, I note that poor girl, Katie Byrne, is not the only case I know of in this country where there are issues. Just recently, I spoke to another girl who is only six who has a similar problem. I spoke to her mother on it and she is getting the exact same excuses. She will probably go through the whole system again and that is what we have to highlight. Nobody should be left behind on this.

Mairead Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein)
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I thank Solidarity-People Before Profit for tabling this motion. It is important that we recognise that the voices of people with disabilities were heard and that thanks to their activism, the Green Paper was scrapped by the Government. That was the right thing to do. It is essential that all disability policy is centred on a human rights-led approach and that people are listened to. I want to raise the issue of respite in Galway. It was good to see that two weeks ago, we saw the opening of Summer Lodge Respite House and Four Seasons day services. That was very positive but it was long and hard fought for. We can already see the impact it is having on families across Galway, which was extremely evident on the day of the opening as well.

We are all too aware of the challenges faced by many families who are unable to access respite, including many in Galway. Many of them have come to me and, I am sure, to everyone in this Chamber, and said that, had they regular access to respite, it would make a world of difference to them. Additional challenges have been created because of that lack of access. This should not be the case. It is something that we need to take seriously in this Dáil. We also need to look at initial assessments and at more family support solutions, such as evening hubs to allow families to be able to work full-time. These are all issues that consistently come up with me in my office and indeed across Galway.

We also need to look at this place we are in now. We need to look at the Dáil, the Seanad and indeed the Houses of the Oireachtas in their entirety. This is the place that votes and decides on legislation that impacts on everyone. It is absolutely essential that it becomes far more representative of wider society. We need to look at what barriers there are to disabled people who want to be elected and for those who want to work in this building. The way this Green Paper was handled has shown that there is a long way to go. We need to make sure that the views of disabled people are heard loud and clear. We need to look at this Chamber and at this as a workplace.

Duncan Smith (Dublin Fingal, Labour)
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I thank Solidarity-People Before Profit for tabling this really welcome motion. The Government's decision to scrap the Green Paper on Disability Reform last week was the right thing to do but it should never have been presented in the first place. It took much too long to scrap it. Activists in this area deserve much praise for the pressure they exerted on the Government. The truth of the matter is that the Government has failed to address the systemic issues facing the disabled community. In particular, I acknowledge my colleague, Dublin city councillor Declan Meenagh, who has been a steadfast voice advocating for the abolition and scrapping of the Green Paper.

Frankly, what the Government was proposing was absolutely preposterous. It is quite clear that the paper was published with little or no consultation with disabled people and it was rightly opposed by a wide range of people and organisations. As this motion rightly points out, the foundation of the Green Paper was based on a flawed idea that it is a straightforward process to assess people with disabilities. If this plan had ever come to fruition, many disabled people would have been in a very difficult situation, with invisible and episodic disabilities undoubtedly facing particularly huge challenges. There is certainly no evidence that such a proposal would have done anything to lift disabled people out of poverty. Indeed, the scope of the Green Paper itself was much too narrow. The paper did not include proposals to remove barriers to employment, such as improving workplace accessibility or disability equality training for employers and did not address the cost of disability issue in any coherent manner. It did not put any obligations on employers in this regard despite Ireland having very weak legal obligations on workplace accessibility.

By scrapping the Green Paper, the Government has finally admitted that it was a half-baked proposal, pulled together without proper consideration. Unfortunately, this speaks to how people with disabilities in this country have long been failed. The current system of disability support is not working. There is no denying that but the concept of a tiered system of supports is simply egregious. We have urged the Department to focus on bringing in a cost of disability payment, which was included in our costed alternative budget and those of other parties in opposition.

We provided allocated funding of €226 million for this purpose. We were consistent in our budget in addressing a multitude of areas on disability which have thus far seen little or no action from the Government. We would increase the income disregard for disability allowance to fund extra places in EmployAbility to support disabled people into the workplace, and provide extra places on the disability wage subsidy scheme, as well as reforming the scheme itself. We would work to remove the means test for carer's allowance, which is the next big challenge we believe needs to be faced with urgency in terms of people who are caring for disabled people.

On disability services themselves, the Government needs to explain why it has not in any significant way moved to address the large unmet demand in disability services as outlined in its disability capacity review. In our alternative budget, we costed and committed to meeting this demand, allocating a total of €217 million in funding for increased services to cover residential care day services, personal assistant hours, home support, respite care and therapy services, including resourcing children's disability network teams. Instead what we got from the Government was a recruitment freeze in the HSE, which has further exacerbated the already challenged services and put further pressure on the services that have not received the funding or resources they need.

Every aspect of our health service faces large waiting lists, from seeing specialists to even getting a GP appointment. Last year, 10,000 children waited more than 12 months to see a member of a CDNT team. The stress and anxiety caused to children and young people and to their families and disabled people is incredible. Every time the recruitment embargo is brought up by the Opposition it is met with the unbelievable response from the Government that the embargo does not exist and the Government has hired too many people. It has not. In Swords, the town where I live, we do not have a social worker at present and we have not for more than a year. We are the largest town in Ireland that does not have a primary care centre, a rail link or a public swimming pool. We are also the largest town in Ireland that does not have a social worker. This is one of the many examples of how the recruitment embargo impacts the most vulnerable in society and needs to end ASAP.

Last year I and many others stood with families outside Leinster House and had meetings in Government Buildings with people with intellectual disabilities who were protesting over the lack of day services. These individuals were school leavers in the north Dublin area. They had been referred to St. Michael's House through the HSE. They had all attended the organisation's school for children with additional needs and had expected to use the adult day services. However, due to a combination of staff shortages and the resources provided to the organisation, they were unable to get places. Will the Government assure us we will not see a similar scene this year? We need a commitment from the Government that individuals with additional needs will not be left behind as they leave children's services and enter adult services.

We have come a long distance in the past 20 or 30 years in terms of how society values and treats people with disabilities. However, this has not been matched by the Government. The data is there to support this. Disabled people are twice as likely to be homeless. They are more likely to be unemployed or underemployed, with Ireland having the highest level of unemployment among disabled people in the European Union due to lack of supports. They are twice as likely to leave school early and more likely to suffer further ill-health.

I want to speak on the optional protocol to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. In 2007 the State signed the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, ratifying the convention in 2018. It is yet to ratify the optional protocol. We want to see the optional protocol ratified now. I welcome the announcement by the Minister and the Minister of State that we are to accelerate the ratification of the optional protocol of the UNCRPD. The House needs to be updated on this work at the earliest possible opportunity. We have rightfully come under scrutiny at UN level due to what can only be seen as a resistance to ratifying the protocol. It is important at international level that we give people who think their rights have been violated under the convention a recourse outside of this country. What concerns me and many activists on this issue is the idea that the reason we have not seen fit to ratify the protocol is because the Government does not feel the care the State provides would meet the rights of persons with disabilities. If anything, this is the reason we need to see positive action on this. It is the State's job to meet these requirements. It is the State's responsibility. It should not be the responsibility of those who deserve to have their rights met to wait for the State to catch up.

I recognise the Minister and the Minister of State have spoken about the due diligence needed in agreeing any supranational review. I understand this is important but other countries in Europe, as well as the US, Australia and New Zealand, ratified the protocol soon after they ratified the UNCRPD. It does not make sense that we are an exception to this. We need to see action on it, and soon, before the lifetime of the Government expires. The Government can be doing more for disabled people and I urge it to take action to increase funding for our disability services in order that no person is left behind.

Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats)
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I thank Solidarity-People Before Profit for tabling the motion. I welcome the decision by the Government to scrap its Green Paper on disability reform. The proposals were highly insulting to disabled people and would have been a massive step backwards for disability rights. It should not have come as a surprise to the Government that there was such a strong backlash by disabled people, DPOs and the public to this deeply offensive plan.

The proposal was to replace the disability allowance, invalidity pension and blind pension with a so-called personal support payment. This would have been divided into three tiers of payments depending on the individual's ability to work. Under the plan, disabled people would have been subject to a medical assessment by employees in the Department of Social Protection and put into one of three separate categories. Those with no capacity to work would get a slightly higher weekly payment while others would have been expected to take up training or find a job. This proposal was a carbon copy of the discredited system introduced in the UK under austerity measures in 2008. These measures were devastating for disabled people and for anyone in receipt of social welfare. I am glad the Government has made a U-turn on this proposal but we need to be clear in this regard and it is important to highlight the reality of what that approach would have meant and what that same approach has meant for disabled people in the UK. Disabled people were presented as benefit cheats by a Tory Government that pitted workers against those in receipt of social welfare payments. British media played up the myth that disabled people were not people in need of support but people chancing their arm. TV shows such as "Benefits Street" were responsible for spreading this deeply harmful and insulting misinformation. This show was name-checked by Deputy Varadkar when the Green Paper was published as if it were some sort of legitimate study. What this attitude resulted in was cut after cut to Britain's social welfare system, leaving those with severe disabilities and serious illness with the threat of their essential benefits being cut if they did not comply with work-related commitments. The vast majority of those who had their benefits cut won on appeal to restore them but many did not have the resources, information or energy to fight the state on that appeal. Poverty levels skyrocketed and people died.

We should never have got to a point where a proposal replicating this human rights disaster of a system got to the Minister's desk, let alone got sign-off and approval for publication. It is incredibly worrying that no one in the chain of decision-making in the Department of Social Protection called a stop before now. What on earth is going on in that Department? While I am glad this position has been reversed serious changes need to be made to the Department of Social Protection's approach to disability reform. Nothing should be done on disability reform without the involvement of disabled people and, crucially, disabled people's organisations. A Cabinet committee is all well and good but if we are serious about changing the attitudes and the processes of Departments and governmental bodies towards inclusion and accessibility, DPOs must be involved at every stage. The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is clear on the need for involvement of DPOs in enacting the convention. I hope this experience has impressed on the Government the need and the value of ensuring this involvement takes place in future reforms.

The new Taoiseach has spoken about breaking down silos in government and making changes happen more quickly. I welcome this new focus and the decision to set up a Cabinet subcommittee on disability. There have been many Cabinet committees on many issues and not many of them have produced substantial change. What we need to know now is what the committee will do. When will disability services match not only what disabled people need but what they are entitled to as a right? People have been listening to the same promises from different Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and Green Party Ministers for years.

In Fine Gael's case, though, those promises have been made for the past 13 years. One particularly cruel example of these broken promises was the decision made by the Fine Gael-Labour Party Government to abolish personal transport supports for disabled people in 2013. At the time, Ministers said that abolishing these supports was just a temporary measure and that they would be replaced quickly. More than a decade later, people are still waiting for them. Last year, the Ombudsman slammed this delay as "shameful" neglect. He said we did not need more committees or reports; we needed clear leadership and action. Those words also fell on deaf ears in the Government and, in the meantime, people cannot rely on public transport for accessibility.

The National Disability Authority's 2023 well-being and social inclusion survey report found that 53% of disabled people have difficulties accessing public transport and that figure rises to 70% for wheelchair users. Transport, public and personal, is fundamental to enable people to live independently, access employment and lower the risk of social isolation. Our public transport system is simply not accessible and it is not fit for purpose. How many times does that have to be pointed out before some actual action is taken?

I am sure the Minister can understand why people might view these commitments with some scepticism. They have learned from bitter experience that these promises often amount to nothing. The committees, when set up, are just talking shops and the reports, when published, are never acted on. There is no great mystery about what needs to be done to improve services. There is no secret formula that the Minister or a Cabinet committee needs to work out before taking immediate action. All they need to do is listen to disabled people, take the advice of their own expert reports and implement change. That final part - implementation - is what has been missing and it is the only thing that will make a difference.

The Minister does not have to wait any longer to take action. There are things the Government could do this week that would make a significant difference. It could recognise the cost of disability with a cost-of-disability payment. It could replace the personal transport support that Fine Gael abolished 11 years ago. It could provide actual pay parity for section 39 workers, many of whom work in children's disability network teams, CDNTs. It could ratify the optional protocol to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, UNCRPD. All of that could be done now and the Government would have the support of the entire Chamber.

Disabled people, children with additional needs and their families have waited long enough for change. There have been enough broken promises, committees and reports. When will this Government move on from just describing problems to doing something about them? What actual action will we see?

Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent)
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I compliment People Before Profit-Solidarity on tabling this very important motion for discussion today. I am a member of the Joint Committee on Disability Matters and, sadly, many of the issues the committee has heard about over the last three or four years remain current. Solutions are not being found. The Government could take a hand over many of the things that are happening and try to sort them out without any more toing and froing.

In 2019, an INDECON report noted an increase in the cost of living with a disability. That increased cost has become worse with inflation in the intervening years, but there is no sign of the Government putting in place some sort of support to help people with disability with the cost of living with their disability. To compound matters, the transport and mobility schemes to aid people with disabilities were withdrawn in 2011. Mr. Peter Tyndall, the Ombudsman at the time, prepared a report on transport for people with disabilities titled Grounded - Unequal Access for People with Disabilities to Personal Transport Schemes. It presents an apt description of how people with disabilities have been left without any supports. The current situation is that some people who have a disability are getting supports, while no supports are available to others who applied after a certain date.

The primary medical certificate system to help people who need to make adjustments to their cars to make them more usable and adaptable is farcical. The criteria, which require people to be an amputee, mean very few people get a primary medical certificate. The problem was compounded by the fact that the members of the appeals board resigned and there is a difficulty getting a new board in place. They resigned because they felt they were ineffective because there was no latitude in the scheme. Promises have been made to establish a new scheme for three or four years. Working groups have been set up and strategies were to be developed but people have been left without any support.

If we are serious about helping people with disabilities to live as independently as possible and giving them the rights they deserve and are entitled to, we have to show it through action. The cost of living with a disability and the transport support schemes are two areas in which the Government could make a huge difference to people's lives within a very short time.

When people who have a disability decide to get married, their disability allowance will be cut if their husband or wife is working. The disability will not have changed but disabled persons become a burden on their wife or husband by becoming reliant on them to provide funding for them to live. Let us just think about that. It is criminal in this day and age that we would continue with this farce of trying to cut people's disability allowance when their disability does not go away.

On children with disabilities, I had some hope that things might change when the children's disability network teams were set up. My experience has been that parents come into me to try to get assessments. This has nothing to do with welfare or anything like that; it is just parents trying to get an assessment. They come in to me and break down crying. They are in need of mental health support themselves because they cannot get an assessment for their child. The child might be violent and uncontrollable at home at times. However, when they contact CAMHS, they are told that it cannot do anything because it does not have the assessment. The CDNTs will say an assessment will be done within the next 18 months. Families are living in hell on earth because of that, as I witnessed again in the past week. It is something we need to sort out as a matter of urgency.

In my local area of Tuam, parents took to the streets last December just before Christmas. The CDNT has a brand-new building, the team has moved in there and we were told this will be a panacea to all problems. The parents found out, however, that the opposite is the case. The team is not even staffed up to half of what is required. At the same time, if parents can get an assessment in the private sector, the State will not pay for the assessment as a matter of principle. The principle behind that approach is that the families should suffer and let the child wait. They will not be allowed to get a private assessment so that they can move things on because it is not the right thing to do in the long term. This is not the right thing to do in the short or long term for the child or family.

Ratification of the United Nations protocol to the CRPD is a commitment in the programme for Government.

The Joint Committee on Disability Matters last year issued a report calling for the Government to put that protocol in place because without it, we are giving lip service to people with disabilities. In the meantime, they have rights to exercise and cannot take the Government to court if they feel they are not getting a service. The Government has that commitment in the programme for Government but its remaining time in office is, at best, between now and next March. I hope the commitment on that protocol will be enacted sooner rather than later.

Another issue I come across relates to school places for people with disabilities, especially in special secondary schools and national schools. People are on waiting lists. For the only secondary school in Galway city with places for people with disabilities, there is a list of eight people who are waiting to get into the school next September. Parents do not know what will happen if their children do not get into such schools. The Department might say it will support, for example, an ASD unit in a national school but resources will only be given if the school in question has the space to run those services itself. The Department will not provide additional accommodation. We have an enormous disconnect in respect not only of social welfare but also in respect of disability and all that goes with it. I will leave it at that. There is a lot of work to be done.

Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent)
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I compliment the movers of this motion, Solidarity-People Before Profit. Last year, the Minister tried to introduce a British system, which has caused uproar, and we know why. The Green Paper tried to tackle related issues, including the cost of disability and the low employment rate among people with disabilities, with a single policy change and it has not worked. Everyone will know what I am talking about but I will use one person to prove my case. People might have read about the wonderful achievements of Mr. Shaun Fogarty from Cahir over the new year. In 2013, Shaun, then a 19-year-old student, was left paralysed following a devastating car accident. His family were told at that stage that he would never eat, drink or speak again. What a prognosis. In the 11 years since his accident, Shaun has overcome massive challenges with the support of his parents, Gretta and Kevin Fogarty, the rest of his family and his carers. He showed great determination and strength and after three years in hospital, and a considerable challenge to get him a home care package, Shaun eventually returned home to the care of his family in 2016. Since then, Shaun has shown great resilience and went on to complete a master's degree. Despite showing such determination and resilience, and overcoming so many obstacles, Shaun is now restricted from taking up work or from earning more than €375 per week as for him to do so would result in him losing his medical card. Imagine that.

Shaun is an inspiration to us all and shows us what is possible with great resilience. However, what Shaun cannot overcome are the limitations now being put on him by red tape and bureaucracy. After overcoming such challenges, Shaun and others like him should be allowed to work, to seek full employment, and not to lose their medical cards and to be restricted. Simple things like that mean an awful lot. If we are to do anything, we should change those guidelines because they are totally unfair to people such as Shaun who are such an inspiration. There are many other Shauns throughout the country.

Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent)
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Our commitment to parents and compassion extends to everyone, regardless of their abilities. However, the proposed tiered payments based on perceived work capacity have significant flaws. They lack meaningful consultation with the disabled individuals who are the very people most affected by these policies. Without their input, we risk overlooking critical aspects of their needs and experiences. These tiered payments will fail to lift disabled individuals out of poverty. Imagine navigating a complex system where your financial well-being hangs in the balance. For those with invisible or episodic disabilities, the process becomes even more challenging and impacts their mental and physical health. Universal payments offer a fair solution by providing consistent support to all disabled people and carers. We thereby create a safety net that does not discriminate based on perceived abilities. Disability is diverse.

I will also talk about people who are trying to get disabled certificates for their cars. It is impossible to get a certificate. Even if you are incapacitated, you cannot get one. It is an insane situation. The Government has put in place a scheme that does not work. Heads need to roll. They rolled previously when the issue came before the courts.

There are also issues in respect of school buses and special needs assistants, SNAs. There has been no extra pay for people who have been working for the past four years. People are working up to six hours every morning, typically from 6 a.m. until 10 a.m., and are working again in the evening but they have no pay during mid-term, Easter or Christmas holidays. Those are people who look after others with disabilities. It is unfair.

Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
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I thank Solidarity-People Before Profit for bringing this important motion before the House. The Green Paper that came out caused great upset among not only individuals but also the organisations that represent people with different types of disability. It was going to lead to a very unfair situation whereby it would put an unfair disadvantage on people and put pressure on them if they had a disability and were trying to seek work. The different scales of payments were not going to be fair or equitable. I was totally against it.

I thank Kerry County Council for the example it shows by trying always to ensure it employs a proper percentage of people who have different types of disability. I thank the management of Kerry County Council for the role it has played not only in recent years but also going back over the past 25 years. It has been one of the leading employers in the country in that regard.

The scheme which deals with disabled drivers and passengers still does not give any recognition to blind persons. If you are a blind person, you cannot be a disabled passenger, and that is wrong.

Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent)
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I will make this issue real for many people. Two weeks ago, I was approached by a 78-year-old man who has a son with a disability. His son is living at home. They applied for a grant for an adaptation to their car but were refused. They came back with an appeal. The Department wanted the 78-year-old man to drive to Dublin for the appeal. We asked could the appeal be reconvened to Limerick and the Department said it would do what it could in that regard. This man is 78 years of age and his son has a disability. His son can sometimes get a weakness and his 78-year-old father must try to get him into the car to get him medical help.

I know of a couple, one of whom has a disability, who got married and the disability payment has now been cut. I know of another couple who were married for three years before the Department twigged it. The Department now wants to take money from the couple and backdate repayment. This is all wrong. If you have a disability and qualify for a payment, regardless of whether you are married or have a partner or not, you still have the disability and cannot change that. The appeals system is very slow and we should not be bringing people to Dublin for an appeal in respect of a disability payment. The first thing the Department should consider is going down to meet such people and investigate the case if there is to be an appeal. We should not be bringing people all the way to Dublin when they are trying to fight a case for their loved ones.

The Government needs to learn from people with disabilities and the people who work with them that they want to contribute in the same way as everybody else. The Government makes everything so difficult. It makes everything circle about the Departments in Dublin. That needs to change. The Government needs to ensure those services come to other counties. We must ensure there are services in place to allow people from the Department to come down to other areas of the country to meet people with disabilities.

Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
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I thank People Before Profit for bringing forward this worthy motion. It is clear that people with disabilities are not being funded properly. I think of the €29 million that was wasted on the referendums and what it would do for people with disabilities.

All of us like to have a place to go and something to do to make us relevant. I ask that we ensure that young people who become disabled, due to accidents or whatever else, are helped to allow them to do something. They want to be relevant. They may have lost most of their faculties but they still have some and should be allowed to use them.

One shining example in that regard is Mr. Ian O'Connell in Kerry. Most of his faculties were paralysed but he has become a beacon for all people with disabilities through the wonderful programme he hosts on Radio Kerry every Wednesday night. It is wonderful to listen to him. Even though he had such a disabling accident, he is doing wonderfully.

It is great to hear him each Wednesday night on Radio Kerry because it proves that people with disabilities can play a role in our lives.

Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independents 4 Change)
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I am sharing time with Deputy Harkin.

I thank People Before Profit-Solidarity for presenting this Private Members' motion to the Dáil. I welcome the news that the Government is planning to scrap the Green Paper on Disability Reform. The proposals were widely condemned by a broad coalition of disability, mental health and carers' groups. I am glad the Government has recognised, as everybody else has, just how unfit for purpose the Green Paper was. This was, however, a shameful attempt to reform the system to benefit the State rather than the people who rely on disability payments to live. While the Government can scrap the Green Paper, or "consultation paper" as it was described, how it got to the Minister's desk is beyond me.

We know now what the Government's thinking is. It wants a system designed to make life easier for the State at the expense of people living with disability or caring for somebody with a disability. It proposed a medical approach that sought to categorise people into tiers based on how capable they were to work, as decided by the State, rather than a social model that seeks to support people in need. There was little or no recognition of the costs people with disabilities and their carers face and the plan ignored the growing problems with disability poverty, with even the highest level support, the so-called tier 1, being significantly below the poverty line. We already know the cost of disability in Ireland. in 2021, a report by the Department of Social Protection estimated the cost of living with a disability to be between €8,700 and €12,300 per annum. Accounting for inflation, the cost would now be between €9,800 and €13,800.

The Green Paper was a totally inhumane approach to force people to work, not to support them. It viewed people as commodities that could be categorised, designated and costed. It sought to put the burden of overcoming employment barriers on those who faced the barriers, not those who have created them. The Department of Social Protection indicated that it expected potentially 50% of the existing recipients of social protection payments would be assessed as tier 3. We could have seen half of those in receipt of disability payments being forced back to work. We know just how dangerous that would be from looking at the barbaric disability reform the Tory Party has implemented in England.

A survey carried out in conjunction with the Centre for Welfare Reform in 2021 found that in Britain, among those engaging with the UK Department of Work and Pensions section on employment matters with regard to disability payments, 13% of respondents said they had attempted suicide as a result and 61% said they had considered suicide. The Government has obviously not learned any lessons from the massive damage and hurt the Tories unleashed on people with disabilities in Britain. It wanted a cost-saving exercise at the expense of the well-being of people living with disabilities. This has happened twice now and it is why I came out strongly for a "No" vote in the care referendum on 8 March when the Government tried to change the State's responsibility for people with disability and their carers.

The Green Paper sought to implement a system in which, in the worst-case scenario, people could have been forced back to work and, in the best-case scenario, forced to live on supports that are below the poverty line. We need a system that treats people with disabilities with dignity, not as objects to be costed and categorised, one that recognises the cost of disability and care and that provides people living with disabilities and carers with a decent standard of living. We need to directly target the real problems in our system with disability welfare and the high levels of disability poverty and deprivation. This should be based on the implementation of the UNCRPD as a basis for a social model of supports and rights.

I hope the Minister supports the Disability (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2023 proposed by Senator Tom Clonan this week but, judging from the Green Paper and the care referendum, I have no faith the Government will implement such a system.

Marian Harkin (Sligo-Leitrim, Independent)
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I thank People Before Profit-Solidarity for introducing this motion. Regardless of who can claim the credit, and I know many different people have been lobbying on the matter, I am very pleased to see that the Green Paper on Disability Reform has been pulled, as it were. The Minister said it was just a consultation paper and while I accept her bona fides, I hope lessons will be learned from what has happened in the meantime and that the substantive issues and concerns that were raised will be dealt with. A very important part of that will be full consultation with people who have a disability and ensuring that the ableist and discriminatory obstacles that were put in place are removed from any future Green Paper.

The Green Paper had, at its core, a proposal to categorise disabled people for the purposes of allocating social welfare payments. This enshrined in the Green Paper the possibility - indeed, the probability - of discrimination between different people who have a disability. It would have them competing with one another for resources. That is simply not acceptable. It was dangerous and morally degrading because the objective seem to be to reduce costs rather than supporting disabled people to work. Given that we have the lowest rate of employment among disabled people and given the additional cost of living with disability, the Green Paper would have been a disaster.

This motion is aptly entitled "disability justice", and I support its asks. There may be some nuances around the means testing for certain payments but I fully support having no means testing for the carer's allowance, whether that is called carer's allowance or a guaranteed living wage. You do not get carer's allowance unless you care full-time for a person who needs full-time care. Therefore, your payment cannot be dependent on the household income. That completely undervalues the work of carers. It is discriminatory, very often against women, and that has to change.

I fully support the introduction of payments to cover the cost of disability. The Department of Social Protection published a paper titled, The Cost of Disability in Ireland, which, when we account for recent inflation, showed that it costs between €10,000 and €14,000 extra per year simply to cover the cost of disability. It is urgent that the next budget introduce a cost-of-living or equity payment to help cover these extra costs. We also need to be aware that the employment and wage subsidy scheme for disabled people is the lowest in Europe. It is medicalised and asks a disabled person to sign a piece of paper to say they are 20% less productive than their non-disabled colleagues. This scheme is flawed and sends the wrong message. We should be trying to support disabled people into employment and in all cases, supports should follow the person.

There is no legal right to personal assistance in this State. The Government needs to prioritise investment in personal assistance. Again, the next budget should invest in personal assistance rather than residential care or services that continually segregate people with disabilities.

Violet-Anne Wynne (Clare, Independent)
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I thank People Before Profit-Solidarity for using its Private Members' slot this week for this very important motion. It is fantastic news that the Green Paper on Disability Reform has been scrapped. Disabled people in my constituency were horrified at the proposal to categorise disability in three tiers according to perceived ability or inability to work. I acknowledge and thank the Clare Leader Forum, which was first out of the traps in responding to the proposal, organising consultations locally, which I attended. It stated that there was not enough focus on tackling the barriers that people with disabilities face in trying to access the workforce. The Green Paper did nothing to address those issues. That is where the Department needs to direct its focus from here on in.

We need to change the tide with regard to Ireland's poor performance in respect of people with disabilities and employment. The Clare Leader Forum has argued that not only should the Green Paper be scrapped but we must go further and provide substantial supports that help disabled people, including employment reform grants paid directly to employers for hiring disabled people and investment in grants towards employment supports to ensure disabled people have the resources to go to work.

They are also looking for the separate possession of a medical card from employment status. Many disabled people are afraid to take up work because they may lose their medical card. We need to ensure there is a human rights approach in this regard.

In the short time I have left, I wish to talk about local issues. There is a desperate need for at least four additional respite homes to ensure those who need respite can avail of it. I say this because people are currently presenting to UHL's accident and emergency department, which is not appropriate for them. There are many issues with assessments of needs in County Clare, with some people waiting more than 400 days. There is still no option to reimburse those who acquire private assessments and there is a major job of work to be done in terms of regulating those private practitioners.

I also wish to briefly mention the disabled drivers and passengers scheme, as I have been unable to make any progress to date in relation to a carer and the person he cares for in County Clare because they are not family. I was hoping for legislative change in this regard.

Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party)
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I thank the Deputies for all their contributions. First, I wish to address a point raised by Deputy Mattie McGrath. He asked about people who lose their medical cards after taking up employment. This matter was also raised by other Deputies. I reassure Deputies that if people take up work, they can retain their medical cards for three years.

The Minister, Deputy Humphreys, has sought to ensure that the interests of people with disabilities and carers remain a focus of her Department's priorities. She has worked to ensure they are properly supported, and has taken targeted measures to increase payment rates and earnings disregard, as well as to expand employment supports and secondary benefits. The Government has increased the weekly rate of disability payments by €29 over the last three budgets. To mitigate the rising cost of living, we have introduced lump-sum payments that totalled €900 over the last two winters. This increased to €2,000 for disabled people living alone and getting the fuel allowance. To improve employment for disabled people, this Government has increased the reasonable accommodation fund by €1 million and has allocated an additional €3.7 million to reduce the minimum required hours for the wage subsidy scheme from 21 hours to 15 hours per week. Last October, the Minister also announced that she is extending the free travel scheme for the first time to people medically unfit to drive.

The cost of disability report published by the Department of Social Protection in 2021 highlighted the need for a whole-of-government approach to tackling poverty and a wide range of economic and social issues faced by disabled people in Ireland. Issues such as access to health and social services, accessible transport and career guidance in schools for young people with disabilities require a holistic approach to addressing them. Negative attitudes in society need to be addressed to ensure people with disabilities can participate actively in work and all aspects of life. The Taoiseach has announced the setting up of the Cabinet committee on disability, and I think we all agree this is a very welcome development. Alongside this new Cabinet committee, a new disability strategy is being developed. This is being co-ordinated by the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, with a whole-of-government approach. This is an important and timely piece of work that will set the direction of policy to improve outcomes for disabled people.

I note that the motion calls for the ratification of the optional protocol to the UNCRPD. I assure Deputies we are progressing with this and, in fact, the officials of the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, will this month convene an interdepartmental group to work through the issues arising and bring a renewed focus to the necessary enabling work to provide for the ratification of the optional protocol. Given the significance, complexity and breadth of the issues involved, all relevant Government Departments and the Office of the Attorney General will be invited to participate in the work of the group. The Minister will subsequently report to the Cabinet on the work of the group.

Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister of State. I call Deputy Ossian Smyth.

Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance)
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I am sharing time with Deputy Mick Barry.

Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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I am sorry; I meant Deputy Bríd Smith.

Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance)
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What did you call me?

Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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I am sorry. I called the Deputy by the Minister of State's name.

Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance)
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In that case, I thank Bríd for her contribution.

More seriously, the last point the Minister of State made about the optional protocol was very much Civil Service-speak. I refer to this being a matter of complexity, the need to progress the issue, have meetings and all the rest of it. How many years have disability campaigners, like those outside the gates now, been campaigning? They are celebrating the scrapping of the Green Paper and campaigning for the optional protocol to be instituted. It cannot be rocket science. Why do we create these tortuous long pieces of work around something that for other countries seems to be very simple? I will tell the House why. It is because this Government has done everything it can to avoid being challenged in the courts in respect of the rights, lives and quality of life of people with disabilities.

It is a bit like the reasoning given when the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, said to me in the House, when we were discussing the referendum Bill, that it was not possible to compel governments to do something in future. This was in relation to the wording that "we will strive to support carers in this society". The weakness of the words "strive to" led to the falling of that referendum. Imagine that the Minister said it is not possible in the Constitution to compel governments to do something in the future. As I said to the Minister at the time, what then is the point of a Constitution, if governments are not being compelled to uphold the rights of the citizens who live under that Constitution?

Really, the Government needs to get the finger out concerning the optional protocol because the people outside the gates today are determined to win more battles to get justice for people with disabilities. They want to see a proper payment that they can live on, similar to what existed during Covid, when we proved that everybody needed at least €350 a week to live on. This has not changed just because the virus is not around. People still need that sort of minimum payment. The people outside the gates also want to see an end to means testing for carers. It is disgraceful that carers are subjected to that means test year after year. This should just be a normal payment for carers.

I want to make an overarching point on the issue of care and the system we live under in this regard. Professor Kathleen Lynch of UCD has written an excellent book entitled, Care and Capitalism. Everyone in this House should read it. Professor Lynch shows that the system we live under completely undervalues one of the most important aspects of human society and how we live together, namely, how we can and should care for each other and that everything else should be put to one side for that reason. This concept will be particularly important in future when we will be fighting in respect of the argument - and as a member of the Green Party, this idea will be familiar to the Minister of State - that what we need is a green new deal that puts a society for care and repair to the head of it. I refer to the repair of the environment and care of each other. To do this, we must get rid of this notion that everything must make a profit for it to be viable. It is not viable to try to make a profit out of people with disabilities and to try to ensure their rights are met within financial constraints.

My next point is on transport services. There are so many aspects of public transport services that damage the lives of people with disabilities. First and foremost is the question of access to bus stations, bus stops and DART stations. This morning, the Dún Laoghaire DART station lift is out of action. If it was not this station, then it would be Kilbarrack, Howth or elsewhere. There is a constant lack of access to the DART line because of the state of disrepair of this service and this situation must be addressed. Imagine being in a wheelchair and arriving to take a train into town to go to a medical appointment or to go to see one's family, but it is not possible to access the train because of the lack of infrastructure.

My next point, which is a simple one, is that our bus infrastructure can only facilitate one wheelchair at a time. As one wheelchair user said to me today, "I like to go out with my mates and a lot of them are in wheelchairs". If two people, therefore, wish to go out together, to go for a coffee, to go into town or to do something together, only one of them can get on the bus. These are very simple, underrated issues that we need to look after in order to adapt and support public transport services so that everybody is included.

A general point about our environment is that when we make it accessible, useable, convenient and a pleasure to use, then it is a pleasure for everybody and not just for the people who are the most disadvantaged and suffer from disabilities. It enhances life for all of us if we factor the issues around public transport and design of our cities into how we make provision in this regard.

Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity)
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I wish to make some summing up remarks on the debate we have just had. Many of the contributions from the various Deputies centred on the issue of the Green Paper. It is clear that a wide variety of Deputies in this House are pleased about the fact that the Green Paper has been scrapped, thanks to the pressure the Government was put under by the disability campaigners first and foremost. However, I think some of the contributions from the Opposition to the debate on this issue were a bit on what I would describe as the soft side.

For example, I am not sure if many disability activists would agree with Sinn Féin's Deputy Ó Laoghaire that the Government was not fully aware of the harmful effects that the proposals contained in the Green Paper would have. I think the Government was given a benefit of the doubt there that was not deserved. I believe the Government and senior civil servants were well aware of what the Green Paper meant. I would not give them the benefit of the doubt at all.

There was significant discussion on what I believe will now emerge as a key if not perhaps the key issue confronting us on disability more broadly, which is the question of means-testing and a living payment. In the debate, claims were made which do not tally with the reality of life for people with disabilities. The Minister made the point that there had been a €29 weekly increase in payments over the past three budgets. However, other Deputies referred to the Indecon report on the cost of living with disability, which in today's terms is between €10,000 and €14,000 per annum. Minor incremental increases like that do not come near to dealing with that reality. We need to shift the debate on to the idea of a real living income for people with disability rather than minimal increases at budget at times.

Having said all that, I want to concentrate my closing remarks on the Government's contribution to the debate. It seems that the Government will not oppose the motion; it has not proposed any kind of a countermotion. It has not indicated that Government Members will not vote for the motion so I presume that they will vote for it or will allow it in some way to go through. I regard that as a cynical ploy to avoid being seen in a poor light. Government Deputies should be clear - I am making sure that they are clear from my comments here - that if they vote for this motion or allow it to go through, they will be held to account on the commitments that are contained within the motion.

I will mention just two. The motion calls for the immediate ratification of the UNCRPD optional protocol. The Government has not even named a date for its ratification. If this motion goes through today, it can expect the pressure on that front to increase. The motion calls for an end to means testing of disability payments and their replacement with an income that genuinely covers the cost of disability. If this motion passes, the Government should immediately factor that into the early planning arrangements for the budget in the autumn. Government Deputies can expect to feel real pressure from disability activists campaigning on the idea of a living income should they fail to do that.