Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 3 February 2022
127. Deputy Éamon Ó Cuív asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the responsibilities in relation to disability that have transferred to his Department; the total budget for disability provided for in the Estimates of his Department; the priorities in relation to disability for 2022; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4645/22]
View answerI am looking for information on the disability responsibilities that have transferred to the Minister’s Department and the budget involved. Where exactly is the dividing line between his Department and the Department of Health?
I am taking this question on behalf of the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte.
National disability policy transferred to our Department in October 2020 from the Department of Justice and Equality, and this includes co-ordinating two national disability strategies, namely, the national disability inclusion strategy and the comprehensive employment strategy for people with disabilities. My Department also acts as the focal point and co-ordination mechanism for the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, UNCRPD. In addition, responsibility for related legislation also rests with my Department, and this includes the Employment Equality Acts, the Equal Status Acts, the Disability Act, the Irish Sign Language Act and the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act.
Many dedicated disability supports are provided across government — for example, by the Minister for Health and the Minister for Social Protection — and the funding secured within my Department complements the resources given for disability services across government.
Under budget 2022, €1.8 million has been assigned to the disability policy team. This will be used for a broad range of projects to support national disability policy and the programmes and work streams attached to the functions within my Department.
The Deputy may wish to note that responsibility for specialist community-based disability services is due to transfer to my Department from the Department of Health. This is in line with the Taoiseach’s announcement on the formation of the Government. The intention is to have the co-ordination of disability-related issues led by a senior Minister for the first time. Progress is being made in regard to the transfer of community-based disability services. Enabling legislation is due to be published very shortly. The heads were agreed by the Government just before Christmas. It is a complex transfer and it involves very significant amendments to the Health Act 2004 establishing Government arrangements between the HSE and my Department. A budget of more than €2.3 billion will be transferred between Votes while at the same time ensuring no negative impact on current services. Until the enabling legislation is passed in both Houses in early 2022, responsibility for the community-based disability services will remain with the Minister for Health.
I thank the Minister. He has given a very comprehensive and clear answer to the question. I take it from him that, as of now, the services delivered on the ground are still delivered by the Department of Health but they are to be transferred through the complex legislation, which he said is to be passed early this year. In the real world, allowing for all the delays and the processes in the House, is the Minister talking about implementation by the autumn?
Legislation on assisted decision-making has been in gestation for a long time and this has caused much upset. Can the Minister confirm that the legislation will be put through the House expeditiously and that we will be finished once and for all with giving people the right to make their own decisions?
With the help of Deputy Funchion and her committee, the assisted decision-making legislation is being subjected to pre-legislative scrutiny. I have no doubt that it will be scrutinised swiftly, after which we can bring it through the House. We need it for June of this year. The Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, and I are committed to that. Working with the committee, we seek to do that.
I hope the transfer of functions will occur far earlier than I have outlined. As soon as the legislation comes through the House, it can be implemented. The legislation in this regard is not being subjected to pre-legislative scrutiny. This was agreed with the health committee because the legislation is transfer-of-functions legislation. Once it is drafted, it will go straight into the House. That will certainly shorten the timeframe. It concerns a functional change, not a policy change, so I hope we can pass it through the Houses reasonably expeditiously. I hope that by spring, or perhaps early summer, it will be completed and the transfer of functions undertaken.
I welcome that because I have fought for a long time to ensure the disabled would not be considered as having an illness but as a community or group of people who have to be supported so they can live their lives fully. Can I take it that responsibility for all those with mental and intellectual disabilities and so on will be transferred to the Minister and that acute medicine will remain in the hospitals? Can I take it that services such as those offered by the Brothers of Charity and Ability West will be transferred to the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth and that such services will be able to benefit from a focus they did not get at times when competing with acute medicine?
That integrated approach, involving looking at persons with a disability not through a medical lens but through a whole-of-services lens, is exactly what the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, and I are hoping to achieve.
Responsibility for mental health services will not be transferred. Child and adolescent mental health services, CAMHS, and the like will remain with the Department of Health, but responsibility for organisations mentioned by the Deputy, such as the Brothers of Charity, will be transferred to my Department.
I ask Deputy Whitmore to introduce her Question No. 134, which seeks a breakdown of the specific amount of funding provided to support domestic violence services.
I did not realise this question would be coming up.
It is only coming up because those with questions before the Deputy are not here.
I would be pleased if the Minister would provide a response to that.
Will the Minister provide a written response?
Yes, happily.
