Alan Kelly
Question:17. Deputy Alan Kelly asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on social affairs and equality will next meet. [5964/22]
View answerWednesday, 16 February 2022
Questions (17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24)
Mary Lou McDonald
Question:18. Deputy Mary Lou McDonald asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on social affairs and equality will next meet. [6124/22]
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Matt Carthy
Question:19. Deputy Matt Carthy asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on social affairs and equality last met and will next meet. [6690/22]
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Seán Haughey
Question:20. Deputy Seán Haughey asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on social affairs and equality is next due to meet. [6692/22]
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Jennifer Murnane O'Connor
Question:21. Deputy Jennifer Murnane O'Connor asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on social affairs and equality is next due to meet. [6693/22]
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Niamh Smyth
Question:22. Deputy Niamh Smyth asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on social affairs and equality is next due to meet. [6694/22]
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Cian O'Callaghan
Question:23. Deputy Cian O'Callaghan asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on social affairs and equality will next meet. [8109/22]
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Mick Barry
Question:24. Deputy Mick Barry asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on social affairs and equality will next meet. [8388/22]
View answerOral answers (9 contributions)
I propose to take Questions Nos. 17 to 24, inclusive, together.
The Cabinet committee on social affairs and equality oversees implementation of programme for Government commitments in the areas of social policy, including sport, arts and culture, equality, including children and youth affairs, and public services, including matters relating to justice, policing reform and community safety.
The Cabinet committee last met on 25 November 2021 and will meet again in the coming weeks. I have regular engagements with Ministers at Cabinet and individually to discuss priority issues relating to their Departments. In addition, a number of meetings have been held between my officials and officials from relevant Departments on various social policy issues since the establishment of the Cabinet committee in July 2020.
Last month, the Taoiseach announced that the Department of Justice will assume overall responsibility for domestic, sexual and gender-based violence, DSGBV, services and policy. I understand the Minister brought a memorandum to the Cabinet this week on the very long-awaited Tusla review of the provision of accommodation for victims of domestic violence. Will the Tusla report be published this week, as committed to by the Taoiseach at his recent meeting with the Opposition?
The Taoiseach has also committed his office to playing a key role in ensuring all Departments deliver on their domestic, sexual and gender-based violence commitments and that the Cabinet committee on social affairs and equality would be utilised in this regard. However, the Taoiseach's Department has no specific provision in its annual budget allocation for DSGBV and the Cabinet committee on social affairs and equality met just twice in 2020 and only once last year. Without a specific budget allocation, allocation of officials or an active Cabinet committee, it is very difficult to see how the Taoiseach's office will have the dedicated focus required.
We know from Government leaks to the media this week that the Minister for Justice also briefed the Cabinet on her plans to establish a new statutory agency to oversee the State's response to domestic, sexual and gender-based violence. The Minister believes it will take between 18 and 24 months to put this agency on a statutory footing.
The Deputy is over time.
I will finish now. Could the Taoiseach clarify the purpose of this agency and give some reassurance about addressing the chronic shortage of refuges and that the funding of services will not be delayed by its establishment?
I wish to raise the need to establish a public inquiry into the death of Shane O'Farrell. A scoping exercise was ordered, but three years later the family are being told of extension after extension. Shane's mam contacted me this week to ask for help, so I ask for the Taoiseach's support for a public inquiry to be set up.
I too wish to raise domestic violence. I welcome Tusla's publication of the review of the accommodation for victims of domestic violence. I am very happy to see the engagement with local authorities, Departments and State agencies. Carlow was mentioned as a particular priority in the Tusla report.
I have reached out to stakeholders, and I spoke to a lot of agencies this morning and it is clear that we need a timescale. My understanding is that timelines will be given in April as well as action plans and targets. All the Departments, agencies and local authorities must work closely on the issue. Timing is of the essence for Carlow in particular and it is important to bear in mind the urgent need for a women's refuge there.
Why did the State agree to sell 22 acres of Coillte land at Ballymartle Forest in Riverstick, County Cork to private interests? Does the Taoiseach accept that the State needs to rapidly expand its forest lands, rather than selling them off to the private sector? I congratulate the local campaigners whose highlighting of this issue has persuaded Coillte to pause the sale to allow for more public consultation, but is the sale already, effectively, a done deal? After all, Coillte has erected a "sale agreed" sign. Is this consultation for real or is it a sham? Will the Taoiseach voice his support for the local people who are campaigning to keep this land in public ownership?
There are many instances that demonstrate that the equality for people with disabilities to which we signed up with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, UNCRPD, is not being delivered.
There is one that I want to draw to the Taoiseach's attention and that I ask the Government to address as a matter of urgency. Many people who have mobility problems or who are in wheelchairs simply cannot access the existing public transport system. Bus, DART and train services are not suitable for their wheelchairs so they have to rely on essentially voluntary clubs, that is if they exist, such as ACTS, which I brought up with the Taoiseach before and there is a similar organisation in Cork city. Those door-to-door services essentially have to fundraise themselves. They get bits of money here and there from this or that Department, but they get no money from the Department of Transport. People's bus passes, which are no good to them because they cannot use mainstream public transport, do not apply to these door-to-door services so they have to pay quite significant sums of money to access public transport. The Department of Transport gives no funding whatsoever to these door-to-door services. That is a lack of equality for people who are particularly impacted by disability. I think their bus passes should fund their use of these door-to-door transport services rather than relying on voluntary funding. That is what equality demands. I ask the Taoiseach to address that.
I want to raise with the Taoiseach the case of Tommy Dickson. Tommy is a six-year-old who attends junior infants in Gaelscoil na Giúise in Firhouse. He has a very rare, life-limiting mitochondrial disease. As a consequence, he needs assistance to go to the toilet. When he moves around, he is at risk of falling and hurting himself because of co-ordination and balance issues, so he needs assistance and support with that. He suffers from a significant visual impairment so he needs to be supported in the use of technology but also in moving around and in social interactions, and he needs support to ensure that he eats an adequate amount at break and at lunchtime while in school.
All of his clinicians and therapists agree that he needs a full-time SNA and they have all been advocating for him. Unfortunately, the National Council for Special Education, NCSE, does not agree. It says the school has to make do with one SNA between Tommy and six other students. It is shocking. He needs this support to be able to function yet the school and the parents are repeatedly told that, no, they have to make do with one SNA between seven. It is scandalous. It is utterly unequal treatment for Tommy in terms of what he needs to be able to perform at school. Will the Taoiseach intervene? Will the Department intervene to avoid the family having to fight this out, to go public, to have me speak about it in the Dáil, to go to the media and to go down the legal route, all to get what Tommy just deserves as a basic right?
I thank the Deputies for raising a range of issues with me. Deputy McDonald referred to domestic violence and the violence against women policy. The publication of the Tusla review will be this week and it is my understanding that the Minister is intent on doing that. There will be a joint delivery board chaired by the Secretary General of my Department and the Secretary General of the Department of Justice, and it will report to the Cabinet committee that we are discussing right now.
When the Deputy refers to a specific budget, there are staff that deal with this whole area in the social policy division and the funding is there for them to do work on this. They will be working in other areas as well and that is normal within the Department of the Taoiseach. Some areas get dealt with and are then concluded, but the funding necessary will be there to carry out the work of the unit within my Department to make sure the timelines, the commitments and the strategy are delivered.
The Minister is going out again to do further consultation. I anticipate the strategy will be ready sometime in April. The Minister wants to talk again to the NGOs and the organisations in respect of the strategy itself. In terms of the agency and the following meetings we have had, the conclusion is that a specific agency would be the best way to pull the different strands of decision together to enable a comprehensive, cohesive and coherent approach to be taken in providing both policy – obviously, the Minister will provide the policy - and the wraparound supports and procurement of refuge spaces and places. There will be a full and comprehensive approach, given the need to pull together different strands and different areas of responsibility into one agency. There is a lot of merit in that, given the issues that have to be addressed, and they need to make progress on that.
In the interim, as I said earlier to other Deputies, it is very important that we move on the refuge places issue and that we work with local authorities and local stakeholder groups to progress that. Deputy Murnane O'Connor met with stakeholders in Carlow. Again, if proposals can come from Carlow, we will respond in respect of developing refuge places there with the local authority and through the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage.
In regard to Judge Haughton’s final report on the scoping exercise, I recognise the ongoing pain and anguish of the O'Farrell family. Many Deputies have raised with me the tragic death of Shane and we very deeply sympathise with the family on their loss. Judge Haughton has been conducting a scoping exercise into the tragic circumstances surrounding Shane's death. He furnished an interim report to the then Minister for Justice in November 2019 in which he stated he would not restrict or limit Shane's family in their submissions to him or the nature or extent of the documentation they wish to furnish to him and his scoping exercise. The judge is completely independent in conducting this scoping exercise, so it is not open to me or the Minister to comment on any aspect of the judge’s work or the process of compiling the final report. The Department maintains regular contact with the judge and has assured him that any assistance that he requires to complete his final report will be made available.
I am informed that Judge Haughton has most recently sought comments on various sections of his draft report from the parties named in it, including the Department of Justice, and the Department has duly responded to his request. I also understand that Judge Haughton has been in touch with the O'Farrell family regarding this matter. Following receipt of a response from all relevant parties, it is understood that Judge Haughton will be in a position to finalise his report. As I said, the Department of Justice will continue to provide all necessary assistance to the judge.
I look forward to receiving the final report. The process has taken a long time, which we regret, but the judge is doing all he can to ensure that the concerns which the family have raised with him during the process are followed through to the greatest extent possible. We will take it from there when that report is published.
Deputy Barry raised the issue of the Coillte land at Ballymartle. I said previously in the House that Coillte has a particular mandate right now, and commercial is one part of it in terms of making ends meet. Personally and policy-wise, I am of the view that we have to move to a situation where all State bodies must lead on climate change. Afforestation is key to that and the retention of trees is key to that as well. Deputies have raised the considerable concern of people living in the area to retain what is a very important residential amenity. The issue will continue to be pursued.
Deputy Boyd Barrett raised the issue of mobility. There is a review under way at the moment within the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth. The whole mobility allowance issue arose because of an Ombudsman's report back in 2013, when that scheme was taken out and no replacement scheme came in. There is an issue around the cost of disability report. All of that is now being considered by an interdepartmental group. The Deputy made a reasonable point in terms of groups like ACTS, those voluntary organisations which provide door-to-door transport services for people with disabilities. I will speak to the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, in respect of that and I will also talk to the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth in terms of what can be done.
Deputy Paul Murphy raised the case of Tommy Dickson, who is looking for a full-time SNA. He has a rare, life-limiting mitochondrial condition, as the Deputy outlined. Again, I am not clear as to why the NCSE has decided not to allocate but I will raise this issue with it.
Is féidir teacht ar Cheisteanna Scríofa ar www.oireachtas.ie.
Written Answers are published on the Oireachtas website.
Cuireadh an Dáil ar fionraí ar 2 p.m. agus cuireadh tús leis arís ar 3 p.m.
Sitting suspended at 2 p.m. and resumed at 3 p.m.