I move: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time."
I am pleased to present the National Disability Authority Bill, 1998, to the House. The Bill was initiated in the Seanad before Christmas and has benefited from a number of detailed and useful amendments made in that House. Once enacted, it will fulfil a key commitment in the Government's programme for equality, the establishment of a national disability authority. In view of the importance of the Bill, we ensured that it was given priority in the legislative programme.
The impetus for the new infrastructural arrangements for disability proposed in the Bill is embedded in the concept of mainstreaming. Mainstreaming for people with disabilities represents a policy approach which seeks to the greatest extent possible, to integrate services for this group with those available to the population generally. Key State services which cater to the needs of the community will now also discharge this role in respect of members of the community who happen to have a disability. The mainstreaming approach will not supplant positive initiatives for people with disabilities but will complement and run in parallel with the targeted services.
It has been estimated that 360,000 people, or 10 per cent of the population, have a disability and that 40 per cent of those people are of working age. Many people with disabilities are marginalised from society and must live with the additional problems associated with marginalisation such as poverty, unemployment, social isolation and poor health. The structural reorganisation envisaged in the Bill represents a root and branch reorientation of our treatment of disability and disability issues. In changing the underlying approach which society takes to the issue of disability, we will set in train a series of actions and reactions which will draw people with disabilities back from the margins of society and change the way disability is regarded in the wider public perception.
The Bill represents the culmination of a process which began in November 1997 when an establishment group for the National Disability Authority and a disability support service was set up. The establishment group was asked to report to Government with detailed proposals for the new infrastructure and the future location of departmental responsibility for the functions of the National Rehabilitation Board. The establishment group reported in June last year and in July the Government adopted its report, Building a Future Together, and approved its recommendations.
A central recommendation of the report is the setting up of the National Disability Authority. The authority will be the cornerstone of a new approach to service provision for people with disabilities. The new approach involves a departure from the traditional logic, which views disability from a medical perspective rather than as a social issue and consequently placed responsibility for services to people with disabilities with the Department of Health and Children. It will also involve the relocation of the functions currently carried out by the National Rehabilitation Board.
Vocational training and employment services for people with disabilities will be provided by FÁS operating under the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment. This will be a major step in the integration of people with disabilities into the labour force enabling them to achieve independence and choice. Similarly, the information service currently provided by the National Rehabilitation Board will, under the new arrangements, be provided through Comhairle, a new mainstream information providing service being established by the Department of Social, Community and Family Affairs. This development will underscore the fact that as citizens people with disabilities are entitled to information and entitlements in the same way as any other citizen. A number of other services, such as the excellent audiology service provided by the National Rehabilitation Board, will continue to be available through the Department of Health and Children.
The National Disability Authority will provide the essential overview of the new arrangement and its central focus will be the provision of services to people with disabilities. The authority will be a watchdog of standards in services for people with disabilities. Its purpose will be to function as an expert body dedicated to the development of standards in services provided to people with disabilities and to conduct independent monitoring of these services. The authority will not be a service providing agency, but it will work in close co-operation with service providers in the voluntary, State and Government sectors.
To assist it in implementing this agenda, the authority will commission independent research and promote innovative projects. As a dedicated body, it will be a source of guidance and support to all service providers. It will assist them in fulfilling their responsibilities to people with disabilities and secure their co-operation in developing the best possible standards. The authority will offer guidance and support not only to organisations in the disability sector, but also to mainstream service providers as they meet their obligations to people with disabilities. The new organisation will report to the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform and will assist in the development of a coherent approach to disability policy which will have direct application to all service providers. The Bill will empower the new organisation working in the Department to take a lead role in ensuring the delivery of high quality services to people with disabilities in an integrated way.
The Bill also provides a clear focus for the new organisation in relation to the development of standards, policy and research. The establishment group in making its recommendations to Government strongly advised against burdening the authority with functions which would detract from its core role. It also recommended against any direct link to service provision as such responsibilities would run counter to its role as a guide and support to service providers. For these reasons, the new infrastructural and administrative arrangements will assign tasks related to service provision to other agencies.
Under the Government, a number of initiatives have been introduced and substantial increases have been made in funding for disability services. These reflect the commitment of the Government to continuously advancing the position of people with disabilities to enable them to achieve greater independence and to participate more fully in the life of the nation. In the area of education, a number of initiatives targeted at children with disabilities are being undertaken. Examples of these initiatives are the provision this year of £4 million for additional teachers and child care assistants for children with disabilities and £1.7 million for escorts and special harnesses for children with disabilities on school buses.
In the area of health, additional revenue of £18 million, with a full year cost of £24 million in 2000, has been made available to help tackle the deficit in accommodation and other services for people with learning difficulties, to furnish health related support services for children with autism and to meet identified needs in these services. A capital allowance of at least £10 million is also being made available in 1999 to support the creation of 320 new residential places, 80 new respite places and 200 new day places. In keeping with the Government's commitment to developing services for people with physical and sensory disabilities, a total of £9.325 million has been made available for the provision of aids and appliances. Once off grants totalling almost £6 million were made to voluntary agencies in the sector in 1997 and additional revenue totalling £5.4 million in 1998 and £9.4 million in 1999, rising to £12.4 million on a full year basis in 2000, has been provided for the maintenance and development of services in this sector with further allocations for capital projects. It is against this background of service provision and entitlement that the authority and the other new mainstreaming measures are being introduced and will operate.
I am convinced the National Disability Authority will provide the link between Government policy and funding for disability and the services and quality of service that are provided to people with disabilities. I am convinced that it, as an expert body, has a vital contribution to make to informed policy formulation and service delivery from which the current and future Governments will benefit.
I will outline to the House some of the main features of the Bill which is divided into three parts as follows: Part I contains standard and technical provisions; Part II provides generally for the role and functions of the authority and the requirements in relation to its members, chief executive and staff; Part III contains provisions arising from the dissolution of the National Rehabilitation Board.
Part I, comprising sections 1 to 5, contains preliminary and general provisions. Section 1 provides for the short title of the Bill, section 3 provides for the establishment day, section 4 gives the powers to make orders and regulations and section 5 makes provision in relation to expenses.
Section 2 is a definitions section. Disability is defined in this section as follows: "disability" in relation to a person, means a substantial restriction in the capacity of a person to participate in economic, social, or cultural life on account of an enduring physical, sensory, learning, mental health or emotional impairment.
Part II comprises sections 6 to 19 of the Bill. Section 6 provides for the establishment of the authority and for its corporate rights and responsibilities.
Section 7 provides that the authority will be independent in the performance of its functions. Section 8 provides for the functions of the authority. Its principal function will be to advise the Minister and keep him or her informed of developments in relation to any disability of persons which concern issues of policy and practice.
Section 9 requires the authority to prepare and submit to the Minister strategic plans relating to its objectives and strategies. Section 10 empowers the authority, following appropriate consultation, to prepare draft codes of practice aimed at achieving good standards and quality in programmes and services for people with a disability.
Section 11 allows the authority to appoint advisory committees and to engage consultants or advisers to assist it in the performance of its functions. Section 12 provides that the Minister may, with the consent of the Minister for Finance, confer additional functions on the authority. Section 13 gives the authority a right of access to relevant information and data held by a public body except where the information or data sought is of a private or personal nature or its disclosure is precluded by law.
Section 14 empowers the authority to seek information on matters concerning the provision of programmes or services for people with a disability from persons, including public bodies, who have overall responsibility for their provision. Where there is a requirement in law to provide a programme or service to persons with a disability, or where a programme or service for people with a disability is in receipt of moneys provided by the Oireachtas, the authority may seek information regarding the provision of that service and the manner in which it is being provided. Where the authority determines that such a programme or service is not being provided or that it is inadequate or unsatisfactory in any manner, there is provision for the authority to inform the person or body concerned.
Section 15 provides for the submission by the authority of an annual report to the Minister and for the laying of each such report before each House of the Oireachtas. The section also empowers the authority to make other reports to the Minister and, where these relate to its role in monitoring standards and codes of practice in programmes and services provided to people with a disability, it empowers the authority to make recommendations for the review, reduction or withdrawal of any moneys provided by the Oireachtas for a programme or service.
Sections 16 and 17 are standard provisions covering grants and the accounts and audit of the authority. Section 18 provides for the procedures and business of the authority. Section 19 contains standard provisions relating to the seal of the authority. Section 20 provides for the membership of the authority. The authority will comprise a chairperson and 20 ordinary members, including an elected member of its staff.
Sections 21 to 24 deal with the terms of office of the members of the authority, the filling of casual vacancies and the meetings and proceedings of the authority. Section 25 provides for the appointment of a chief executive of the authority. The first chief executive will be appointed by the Minister and, thereafter, the chief executive will be appointed by the authority. Section 26 deals with the functions of the chief executive. Section 27 provides for the appointment of persons as staff of the authority. The authority is required by the section to have regard to arrangements for conciliation and arbitration in place when determining the terms and conditions of its staff.
Section 28 places a requirement on the authority to put in place a scheme or schemes for granting superannuation benefits to or in respect of its staff.
Provision is made that where a member of staff was, immediately prior to his or her appointment to the authority, an officer or servant of the National Rehabilitation Board, the terms and conditions of the superannuation benefits granted under a scheme made by the authority shall not be less favourable than those which previously applied.
Sections 29 to 33 are standard provisions relating to the disclosures, declarations and disqualifications relating to the authority. Section 34 provides that a review of the legislation is to be initiated not later than three years after the establishment of the authority.
Part III comprises sections 35 to 38 of the Bill. This Part provides the necessary link between the Health (Corporate Bodies) Act, 1961 and the provisions of this Bill in relation to the authority and the other agencies and Departments concerned. These sections deal with issues arising as a result of the dissolution of the National Rehabilitation Board and the transfer of the staff, assets and liabilities of the board to the authority and the other agencies and Departments involved in the new infrastructural and administrative arrangements. The necessary orders to effect these transfers will be made by the Minister for Health and Children under the Health (Corporate Bodies) Act, 1961.
Section 35 is a definition section in relation to this part of the Bill. Section 36 makes provision in regard to pay and conditions of service of members of staff of the authority who, immediately prior to their appointment, were serving as officers or servants of National Rehabilitation Board. Except where there is a collective agreement negotiated with a recognised trade union or staff association concerned, such members of staff shall not, while in the employ of the authority, receive a lesser scale of pay or be made subject to less beneficial terms and conditions of service than they had been entitled to before their assignment to the authority.
Section 37 extends the scope of section 7 of the Health (Corporate Bodies) Act, 1961 to include the authority or other public body. The public bodies concerned are in effect, FÁS, under the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment and Comhairle and the new information service being established under the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs. As a consequence, the Minister for Health and Children may, with the consent of the appropriate Minister, make orders to transfer or assign property enjoyed, or liabilities incurred, by the National Rehabilitation Board which have not been discharged prior to such transfer or assignment, to the authority or other public body.
Section 38 makes a further link with section 7(2) of the Health (Corporate Bodies) Act, 1961 by providing that the Minister for Health and Children may make an order under that Act for the dissolution of the National Rehabilitation Board and the transfer of property rights and liabilities, not transferred to the authority or other public body under section 37, or of staff, not appointed to the authority or other public body. These provisions deal with the dissolution of the National Rehabilitation Board and the relocation of departmental responsibility for its functions, assets and staff.
I am grateful to the board for the work which it has done over the past 30 years. I also commend the NRB and its staff for the way in which it has contributed to the changes being introduced and for being at the forefront of the call for this change. I am confident that its staff, who will transfer to the new structures, will continue to provide excellent standards of service for people with a disability.
I commend the National Disability Authority Bill to this House.