When the Government took office in March 2011, I was privileged to be appointed as Minister of State with responsibility for people with a disability. The remit spans the whole of Government. It is a pillar of Government policy that people with disabilities should be empowered by policy and programmes to participate meaningfully as citizens in Irish society. The National Disability Strategy is driven by this basic, but fundamentally important, objective. It is Government's goal to develop the most effective combination of legislation, policies, institutional arrangements and services to support and reinforce equal participation for all people with disabilities.
The Programme for Government contains a commitment to publish a realistic implementation plan for the National Disability Strategy. That Implementation Plan was published in July 2013 and is the first such implementation plan to be put in place since the National Disability Strategy itself was launched in 2004. The Plan was prepared by the National Disability Strategy Implementation Group, which I established in 2011. I continue to chair the Group to oversee the implementation of the Strategy. The Implementation Group brings together representatives of the relevant Government Departments and representative organisations, including the Disability Federation of Ireland, and also a number of people with disabilities. Significant discussion was undertaken between disability stakeholders and Government Departments to reach agreement on the suite of actions contained in the Plan. The Plan sets out the practical measures across all Government Departments that will be taken to advance the Strategy and ensure that available resources are used to best effect. Progress on the Plan is kept under review by the Implementation Group and thematic meetings, at which all relevant bodies are present to ensure cross-sectoral input and review, are convened. Two such thematic meetings were held in 2013 and focused on the themes of Housing and Irish Sign Language.
The vision for the Health Service Executive's Disability Services Programme is to contribute to the realisation of a society where people with disabilities are supported, as far as possible, to participate to their full potential in economic and social life, and have access to a range of quality personal social supports and services to enhance their quality of life. The Health Service Executive National Service Plan 2014 and the recently published 2014 Operational Plan for the Social Care Division outline the quantum of specialist disability services, the key reform initiatives and the additional investment in 2014 which it has assured me will give effect to this vision in 2014. The HSE will spend €1.4 billion and employ a staff level of approximately 15,000 whole time equivalents in 2014 to provide specified levels of services. 2014 will also see an additional investment of €14 million to address deficits in disability services, a reform programme to transform services to a community based model of person centred supports, a focus on the implementation of the Health Information and Quality Authority standards for residential services for people with a disability. These developments and reform proposals will be carried out in an environment of effective communications and engagement with all those involved in services, including people with a disability and the Disability Federation of Ireland, through the HSE's National Consultative Forum.
